A field experiment was conducted in Hetian to characterize the rhizosphere of wheat and jujube trees intercropping systems. In the maturity of winter wheat and flowering stage of jujube trees, the root samples of sole wheat, sole five-year-old jujube tree and five-year-old jujube tree intercropped with wheat were collected by the auger methods. The root length density and root surface area density of root samples were analyzed by Win-SURFER v.8.0. Economic yields and above-ground biomass were examined in wheat and jujube mature stage, which was evaluated by land equivalent ratio.

The results show that yield and above-ground biomass of jujube and wheat decreased significantly under the jujube-wheat intercropping system. The land equivalent ratio of yield and above-ground biomass were 1.383 and 1.322 under jujube-wheat intercropping system compared to the corresponding sole systems, which means that it had a higher total output and efficiency of land use. Both root length density and root surface area density of intercropped wheat and jujube tree were lower than those in the corresponding soil in their sole systems. Root length density of intercropped wheat decreased by 46.2% compared to its sole wheat in 20-60 cm soil. Root length density and root surface area density of intercropped jujube decreased by 34.5% and 31.2% compared to its sole jujube in 20-60 cm soil. The roots of five-year-old jujube tree and wheat had niche overlap in the 20-60cm soil. It caused that root length density and root surface area density of intercropped wheat and jujube tree distributed unevenly.