Biological soil crust (BSC) as a nature-based strategy has a great potential to restore soil and water in arid and semi-arid natural ecosystems. Yet, little is known about its effects on soil fertility and productivity as affected by the BSC inoculation in agroecosystems. We hypothesis that BSC inoculation can improve soil quality, while increasing crop productivity and economic benefits in semiarid rainfed region. To address this issue, we carried out field experiment using forage maize (Zea mays L.) from 2018 to 2019, with four treatments as follows: 1) conventional flat planting (control, CK), 2) flat planting with the inoculation of BSC (BSC), 3) ridge-furrow planting (RF), and 4) sectional ridge-furrow planting (SRF). The results showed that BSC inoculation significantly enhanced maize shoot and root biomass by 53–63 % and 30–67 % accordingly (P < 0.05), compared with CK in two growing seasons.Also, BSC treatment slightly increased soil water content and soil temperature, while significantly decreasing soil pH and soil bulk density, relative to CK, RF and SRF (P < 0.05). Compared with CK, the BSC inoculation markedly improved soil microbial biomass carbon by 54 % and nitrogen by 52%, soil organic carbon by 21 %, and total nitrogen by 30% respectively (P < 0.05) Critically, the contents of above four parameters were 42 %, 32 %, 19 % and 32 % greater in BSC than RF and SRF, respectively (P < 0.05). Simultaneously, the BSC significantly decreased soil C/N ratio by 7 %, while SRF and RF slightly decreased C/N ratio by 0.2 % and 2 % only, in comparison with CK. Interestingly, soil C&N mineralization efficiency were significantly greater in the BSC treatment than CK, RF and SRF (P < 0.05). In addition, the economic benefit under BSC was the highest relative to other three planting systems In conclusion, BSC can be used as a nature-based strategy (NbS) to improve soil properties, promote microbial C&N uptake and utilization via enhancing C&N mineralization and lowering C-N ratio. In conclusion, BSC can act as a green solution to achieve high productivity and promote soil fertility in semiarid agricultural ecosystem.

生物土壤结皮（BSC）作为一种基于自然的策略，在干旱和半干旱的自然生态系统中具有恢复土壤和水的巨大潜力。然而，关于其对农业生态系统中 BSC 接种影响的土壤肥力和生产力的影响知之甚少。我们假设 BSC 接种可以改善土壤质量，同时提高半干旱雨养地区的作物生产力和经济效益。为了解决这个问题，我们使用牧草玉米（ Zea maysL.) 2018-2019年，4个处理如下：1）常规平栽（对照，CK），2）接种BSC平栽（BSC），3）垄沟种植（RF），4 ）分段垄沟种植（SRF）。结果表明，与CK相比，BSC在两个生长季节均显着提高了玉米地上部和根系生物量53-63%和30-67%（P  < 0.05）。此外，BSC处理略微增加了土壤含水量和土壤温度。 , 同时显着降低土壤 pH 值和土壤容重，相对于 CK、RF 和 SRF ( P  < 0.05)。与CK相比，接种BSC显着提高了土壤微生物量碳增加54%，氮增加52%，土壤有机碳增加21%，全氮增加30%( P  < 0.05) 临界以上四个参数的含量分别增加42%、32%、19%和32%在 BSC 中，RF 和 SRF 分别高于 ( P  < 0.05)。同时，与CK相比，BSC显着降低了土壤C/N比7%，而SRF和RF略微降低了C/N比0.2%和2%。有趣的是，BSC 处理的土壤 C&N 矿化效率显着高于 CK、RF 和 SRF ( P < 0.05)。此外，BSC 下的经济效益相对于其他三种种植系统最高。综上所述，BSC 可作为一种基于自然的策略 (NbS)，通过增强 C&N 矿化和降低CN 比率。总之，BSC可以作为一种绿色解决方案，在半干旱农业生态系统中实现高生产力和促进土壤肥力。