ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Microbe and Virus Interactions with Plants
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1600236
This article is part of the Research TopicProspecting Microbial Technologies for Agricultural SustainabilityView all 4 articles
Impact of rain-shelter cultivation on rhizosphere microecology and kiwifruit quality
Provisionally accepted
Jianbin Lan1
Xixi Dong2*Rui He2Qin Huang2Linyu Liu2Junlan Liu2Ailin Tian2Haodan Zhang2Guoqing Sun2
Bangzhou Luo1
Yinqiu Zeng1
Qiang Li2*- 1Xichang College, Xichang, Sichuan, China
- 2Chongqing University of Arts and Sciences, Chongqing, China
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The effects of kiwifruit rain shelter cultivation on the microecological characteristics of the rhizosphere soil and fruit yield and quality remain uncertain. Therefore, we compared the differences in rhizosphere soil physicochemical properties, microbial populations, enzyme activities, microbial biomass, and fruit yield and quality between kiwifruit rain shelter and open-field cultivation. Additionally, correlations among these parameters were determined. Compared with open-field cultivation, rain-shelter cultivation significantly increased kiwifruit yield (5.17%–9.30%), single fruit weight (5.44%–6.54%), fruit longitudinal diameter (3.75%–4.08%), and transverse diameter (4.58%–5.08%), and improved fruit quality, including soluble solids content (9.03%–10.05%), soluble sugar content (2.41%–4.55%), sugar-to-acid ratio (15.07%–20.45%), and vitamin C content (19.03%–20.22%). Moreover, rain-shelter kiwifruit cultivation significantly enhanced soil nutrient availability, microbial population, enzyme activities, and electrical conductivity, whereas soil total nutrient and organic matter contents decreased significantly. Further analysis revealed that kiwifruit yield and quality were significantly and positively correlated with available soil nutrients, microbial population, enzyme activities, and microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen but were negatively correlated with the carbon/nitrogen ratio of microbial biomass. These findings indicate that soil microbes and enzymes regulate kiwifruit yield and quality by influencing nutrient availability. Our study provides a firm scientific basis for the efficient soil management and conservation of kiwifruit production, thereby emphasizing the potential of rain shelter cultivation to promote sustainable agriculture.
Keywords: Rain-shelter cultivation, fruit yield, fruit quality, rhizosphere, soil microecology, soil carbon, Soil enzyme activity
Received: 27 Mar 2025; Accepted: 09 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Lan, Dong, He, Huang, Liu, Liu, Tian, Zhang, Sun, Luo, Zeng and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Xixi Dong, Chongqing University of Arts and Sciences, Chongqing, China
Qiang Li, Chongqing University of Arts and Sciences, Chongqing, China
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