Intercropping can achieve sustainable agricultural development by increasing plant diversity. In this study, we investigated the effects of tomato monoculture and tomato/potato-onion intercropping systems on tomato seedling growth and changes of soil microbial communities in greenhouse conditions. Results showed that the intercropping with potato-onion increased tomato seedling biomass. Compared with monoculture system, the alpha diversity of soil bacterial and fungal communities, beta diversity and abundance of bacterial community were increased in the intercropping system. Nevertheless, the beta-diversity and abundance of fungal community had no difference between the intercropping and monoculture systems. The relative abundances of some taxa (i.e., Acidobacteria-Subgroup-6, Arthrobacter, Bacillus, Pseudomonas) and several OTUs with the potential to promote plant growth were increased, while the relative abundances of some potential plant pathogens (i.e., Cladosporium) were decreased in the intercropping system. Redundancy analysis indicated that bacterial community structure was significantly influenced by soil organic carbon and pH, the fungal community structure was related to changes in soil organic carbon and available phosphorus. Overall, our results suggested that the tomato/potato-onion intercropping system altered soil microbial communities and improved the soil environment, which may be the main factor in promoting tomato growth.

中文翻译：

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间作与马铃薯洋葱增强了番茄的土壤微生物多样性。

间作可以通过增加植物多样性来实现可持续农业发展。在这项研究中，我们调查了番茄单一栽培和番茄/马铃薯洋葱间作系统对温室条件下番茄幼苗生长和土壤微生物群落变化的影响。结果表明，套种马铃薯洋葱增加了番茄幼苗的生物量。与单作系统相比，间作系统增加了土壤细菌和真菌群落的α多样性，β多样性和细菌群落的丰度。但是，间作和单作系统之间的真菌群落的β多样性和丰富度没有差异。一些类群的相对丰度（即，嗜酸细菌第6亚组，节杆菌，芽孢杆菌属，假单胞菌属）和几个与个OTUs促进植物生长的潜力均升高，而一些潜在的植物病原体（即，相对丰度枝孢）在间作明显降低。冗余分析表明，细菌群落结构受土壤有机碳和pH值的显着影响，真菌群落结构与土壤有机碳和有效磷的变化有关。总体而言，我们的结果表明，番茄/马铃薯-洋葱间作系统改变了土壤微生物群落并改善了土壤环境，这可能是促进番茄生长的主要因素。