Fig 1.
Mean air temperature and average rainfall of the experimental site in 2013 and 2014 seasons.
The ‘Sm and Ss’ represent maize sowing and soybean sowing, whereas ‘Hm and Hs’ represent maize and soybean harvesting, respectively. Data were collected from the Renshou Bureau of Meteorology, Sichuan, China.
Fig 2.
Row arrangments for maize-soybean relay strip intercrops and sole crops.
(a) 160 cm bandwidth (b) 200 cm bandwidth (c) sole maize and (d) sole soybean. Two rows of maize were intercropped with two rows of soybean. Maize was planted in the narrow rows, whereas soybeans were planted in wide rows between the maize rows two months before maize maturity.
Fig 3.
Maize LAI dynamics as affected by planting geometries in 2013 and 2014 seasons.
(a) 160 cm bandwidth: A1 = 20:140 cm; A2 = 40:120 cm; A3 = 60:100 cm; A4 = 80:80 cm. (b) 200 cm bandwidth: A1 = 20:180 cm; A2 = 40:160 cm; A3 = 60:140 cm; A4 = 80:120 cm. Each data point represents standard deviation of the mean (n = 3).
Fig 4.
Average maize LAI as a function of maize narrow-row spacing in 2013 and 2014 seasons.
Solid line and circles represent values from 2013, whereas dashed line and empty circles represent values from 2014.
Table 1.
Soil water content (%) for different planting geometries in 2013 and 2014 seasons.
Fig 5.
Soil water content as a function of maize narrow-row spacing in 2013 and 2014 seasons.
(a, b) 160 cm bandwidth and (c, d) 200 cm bandwidth
Table 2.
Soil evaporation (mm day-1) for different planting geometries in 2013 and 2014 seasons.
Fig 6.
Soil evaporation as a function of average maize LAI in 2013 and 2014 seasons.
(a) 160 cm bandwidth and (b) 200 cm bandwidth. Solid line and circles represent values from 2013, whereas dashed line and empty circles represent values from 2014.
Table 3.
Throughfall (mm) for different planting geometries in 2013 and 2014 seasons.
Fig 7.
Throughfall as a function of average maize LAI in 2013 and 2014 seasons.
(a, b) represent values at 160 cm bandwidth and (c, d) represent values at 200 cm bandwidth.
Table 4.
Grain yields and LERs for different planting geometries in 2013 and 2014 seasons.
Table 5.
ETc, WUEs, Gwue and WERs for different planting geometries in 2013 and 2014 seasons.