Poplar-Crop Interplantation:a Case Study for Its Ecological Benefits, Site Productivity and Economics

Poplars are the major tree component of the traditional agroforestry system throughout the south temperate central area of China.However, lack of experimental data or basic information on production of the interplanting system is a serious gap in our knowledge, and consequently, a stable, optimized poplar-crop interplanting pattern is hard to achieve.In order to develop a poplar-crop interplanting patterns which is economically viable, environmentally sound, technically workable, and socially compatible, some new poplar-crop interplanting pattern were designed and established using the principle of edge effects in 1992.Six spacings were designed in the experiment with narrow-wide spacing pattern, i. e.Ⅰ:(3×3)×20 m, Ⅱ:(3×3)×30 m, Ⅲ:(3×3)×40 m, Ⅳ:(4×4)×20 m, Ⅴ:(4×4)×30 m, and Ⅵ:(4×4)×40 m, and the block arrangement was made at random with two replications.Based on the investigations, this paper mainly tests the effects of these new patterns on temporal and spatial variations in microclimate at various phenological phases of winter wheat, variations in wheat yield and wheat quality, biomass productivity and light use efficiency and economic assessment, and the potential viability of these new patterns is also discussed in the paper.These preliminary results can provide some basic principles for developing optimized poplar-crop interplanting patterns in the plain areas of China.