In the transitional region between agriculture and livestock rearing in northern China, planting forage crops in rows among fruit trees as feed in orchards represents an effective strategy for enhancing the ecological environment while addressing the increasing demand for livestock feed. Nonetheless, the impact of short-term mowing of cover forage crops for livestock feed on the quality of soil remains unclear. A two-year field experiment was conducted in Ziziphus jujuba cv. “Lingwuchangzao” orchards located in Lingwu County, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, in arid and semi-arid Northwest China. The experiment consisted of four treatments: (A) clean tillage (CK), (B) plantation with Lolium perenne (LP), (C) plantation with Trifolium repens (TR), and (D) plantation with Vicia villosa (VV).The results showed that short-term intercropping of forage crops may lead to a reduction in most soil nutrients in Z. jujuba cv. “Lingwuchangzao” orchards, particularly in the 0–20 cm soil layer. However, intercropping with TR can mitigate this declining trend and may even enhance nutrient levels within the 0–40 cm depth. Furthermore, intercropping of forage crops had a more pronounced effect on the α-diversity of fungal communities than on bacterial communities. This practice also altered the relative abundance of bacterial genera such as Sphingomonas, Bacillus, and Flavobacterium in the 20–40 cm depth and dominant fungal genera Fusarium and Mortierella in the 0–20 cm soil layer. The effects of soil physicochemical properties on bacterial communities were more significant than those on fungal communities.These results indicate that the short-term intercropping of forage crops in Z. jujuba cv. “Lingwuchangzao” orchards in arid and semi-arid Northwest China have varying impacts depending on the type of forage crop used.

Ammopiptanthus mongolicus is a relict species from the ancient Mediterranean of the Tertiary period and the only strong xerophytic evergreen broad-leaved shrub in the central Asian desert. Foliar endophytic and epiphytic bacteria jointly form phyllosphere microorganisms that influence plant health. This study investigated the dynamic changes in foliar endophytic bacterial communities across four leaf growth stages (Young, Mature, Old1, and Old2). Illumina 16S region (V5–V7) amplicon sequencing was used to analyze community composition, function, construction process, and environmental driving factors. The Old1 and Old2 stages were clearly separated from the Young and Mature stages, which demonstrated closer clustering. Community diversity and evenness first increased from the Young to Mature stages, declined at the Old1 stage, and finally reached maximum values at the Old2 stage; richness increased gradually. Total amplicon sequence variant (ASV) numbers, stage-specific ASVs, and their proportion increased with leaf development, whereas the proportion of shared ASVs between adjacent, interval, and all stages decreased. Dominant genera were Rhodococcus (Young), unclassified_f__Comamonadaceae (Mature), Rhodococcus (Old1), and Bacillus (Old2). Co-occurrence networks became progressively simpler, with reduced inter-node and positive connectivity. Functional predictions revealed that chemoheterotrophy and aerobic chemoheterotrophy decreased initially and then increased, with the lowest values at Old1. N, C/P, N/P, and SOD reached maximum at the Old2 stage. P was maximum at the Mature stage. P, C/P, and N/P were significantly positively correlated with the Young stage, N with the Mature stage, and SOD with the Old2 stage (p < 0.05). These findings enhance understanding of the diversity, composition, function, and plant–endophyte relationships in xerophytic relict species, particularly evergreen desert shrubs.