Study On Intercrop Effect On Both Biodiversity Increase And Tea Quality Enhancement

In order to make a study of the enhancing or lessening effect of intercrop in tea gardens on biodiversity, and of augmenting or reducing function of intercrop in tea gardens on major quality factors, as well as screen the proper intercrop species of trees, Chinese plum-tea, medical dogwood-tea and chestnut-tea intercrop gardens in Shitai County in the Southern Anhui Province with an ample of vegetation at high altitude were chosend, being adjacent to which intercrop tea garden, pure tea gardens as CK were chosen,too.Within the 6 gardens, species richness and abundance of insects,araneids and mites were investigated at interval of 1 month from January of 2007 to January of 2009.The results showed that:â‘ being compared with CK, the total species richness and the total diversity indices in the intercrop tea garden were slightly large;â‘¡the abundance of natural enemy in the intercrop tea garden were slightly more, and the ratio of beneficial to harmful organisms in intercrop tea garden were slightly large;â‘¢the effect trend of intercrop on the total abundance was not obvious;â‘£the promoting effect of Chinese plum or chestnut on biodiversity in tea gardens were stronger than medical dogwood.At the same time, Litsea cubeba-tea, Diospyros rhombifolia-tea intercrop gardens in the hilly Guichi County in the Southern Anhui Province with the sparse vegetation at low altitude were chosend, being adjacent to which intercrop tea garden, pure tea gardens as CK, were chosen, too.Within the 4 gardens, species richness and abundance of insects, araneids and mites were investigated at interval of 1 month from January of 2007 to January of 2010.The results showed that:â‘ being compared with CK, the total species richness and the total diversity indices in intercrop tea garden were distinctly large;â‘¡the abundance of natural enemy increased, and the ratio of beneficial to harmful organisms in intercrop tea garden were slightly large;â‘¢the population of tea green leafhoppers was small;â‘£the promoting effect of Diospyros rhombifolia on biodiversity in tea gardens were stronger than Litsea cubeba.In the mountainous tea gardens in Shitai County, the tender tea shoots with 1 bud and 2 leaves were plucked and processed into steam tea samples in the year of 2007 and 2008.The contents of EGCG and other seven types of catechins, theines, amino acides, thea, gallic acids were determined by HPLC, referring to the national standard. The results showed that compared with the CK, within the intercropping tea gardens the content of amino acids and the content of thea increased obviously, the content of theine increased slightly, whenas the content of catechins decreased obviously, and the ratio of phenols to amino acids fell slight.Based on the above analysis, we considered:the intercrop in tea gardens can augment the species richness of insects, enlarge biodiversity indices, and increase the ratio of beneficial to harmful organisms, to certain extent; moreover, the intercrop can depress tea green leafhoppers to a certain degree. The effect will be more obvious in hilly area with scarce vegetables than in mountainous area with ample vegetables. The intercrop can retain tea shoots tender for a long time, and increase the contents of amino acids and other nutrition ingredients. However, individual intercrop do not have such effect, for which the the species of trees are responsible. The Chinese plum and chestnut in the mountainous area of Shitai County, and Diospyros rhombifolia in the hilly area of Guichi County acquired nice intercrop effect.