Soil microbial community analysis in arid irrigation region for crop diversification

Soil microbial community analysis of a field experiment to assess the impact of crop diversification on soil microbial diversity in five cropping patterns: conventional maize sole cropping (CM); maize intercropped with common vetch (IM); two-year (maize-vetch) or two crops (wheat-vetch) rotation (R2); three-year (vetch-maize-maize) or three crops (wheat-vetch-maize) rotation (R3); and alfalfa-grass mixtures (LG). The sample site was located in Linze County of Gansu Province, Northwest China.