Abstract:The driving mechanism and ecological regulation effect of water-saving irrigation on the degradation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in rice-crab co-cultivation system was revealed. By comparing the conventional submerged irrigation (CF), shallow and wet irrigation (SWD) and alternate dry and wet irrigation (AWD) modes, it was found that the degradation efficiency of soil phenanthrene was significantly increased by 95.36% and 82.99% under water-saving irrigation (AWD\\SWD) treatments, which was 43.01% and 24.46% higher than that of CF (66.68%), respectively. AWD treatment was more excellent in reducing the phenanthrene bioaccumulation of rice crab system, significantly reducing the accumulation of PAHs in roots, stems and leaves by 35%~55%, and the enrichment of phenanthrene in crab body was decreased by 52.08% compared with that of CF, systematically blocking the risk of contaminant food chain transmission. Furthermore, water-saving irrigation (AWD\\SWD) effectively enhanced soil environmental quality, which was achieved through reshaping soil aggregate structures and increasing oxygen availability, which promoted aerobic degradation of phenanthrene, activation of PAH metabolic decomposition pathways via improved redox enzymes and hydrolases, enrichment of soil nutrients that stimulated microbial community proliferation and structural optimization. The synergistic interactions of these factors significantly strengthened phenanthrene metabolism in rice-crab system soils. The research result elucidated the multi-interface collaborative degradation mechanism of phenanthrene driven by water-saving irrigation under rice-crab co-cropping mode, and provided an innovative paradigm for pollution control and resource collaborative optimization in ecological agriculture.