Abstract: The study on the tea rice intercropping system in west Auhui mountainous region showed that the leaf area index of this system was higher than that of the single tea garden, and the spatial distribution of its upper and lower layers was more rational. At the early growing stage of rice, the ecological boundary layer was upper tea and lower rice; while at the later stage,it was upper rice and lower tea, which was beneficial to the system to fully use light, heat, water and gas resources. Compared with single tea garden, in the intercropping system in midsummer, the relative light intensity reduced by 35.7%, the temperature after the noon decreased by 0.9～1.9℃, and the relative humidity increased by 7%. All of these provided with a suitable eco environmental condition for the growth of tea trees, and increased the growing speed rate of their new shoots. The water utilization efficiency of rice in the intercropping system was higher than that in paddy field, and the edge effect was significant. The number of effective ears per unit area and the percentage of filled spikelets were increased.

Key words: Tea rice intercropping, Ecological structure, Physiological characters, microcosm., environmental selection, dispersal limitation, temperate forest, bacterial community structure