scholarly journals Intercropping with Potato-Onion Enhanced the Soil Microbial Diversity of Tomato

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 834
Author(s):  
Naihui Li ◽  
Danmei Gao ◽  
Xingang Zhou ◽  
Shaocan Chen ◽  
Chunxia Li ◽  
...  

Intercropping can achieve sustainable agricultural development by increasing plant diversity. In this study, we investigated the effects of tomato monoculture and tomato/potato-onion intercropping systems on tomato seedling growth and changes of soil microbial communities in greenhouse conditions. Results showed that the intercropping with potato-onion increased tomato seedling biomass. Compared with monoculture system, the alpha diversity of soil bacterial and fungal communities, beta diversity and abundance of bacterial community were increased in the intercropping system. Nevertheless, the beta-diversity and abundance of fungal community had no difference between the intercropping and monoculture systems. The relative abundances of some taxa (i.e., Acidobacteria-Subgroup-6, Arthrobacter, Bacillus, Pseudomonas) and several OTUs with the potential to promote plant growth were increased, while the relative abundances of some potential plant pathogens (i.e., Cladosporium) were decreased in the intercropping system. Redundancy analysis indicated that bacterial community structure was significantly influenced by soil organic carbon and pH, the fungal community structure was related to changes in soil organic carbon and available phosphorus. Overall, our results suggested that the tomato/potato-onion intercropping system altered soil microbial communities and improved the soil environment, which may be the main factor in promoting tomato growth.

Forests ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pan Wan ◽  
Gongqiao Zhang ◽  
Zhonghua Zhao ◽  
Yanbo Hu ◽  
Wenzhen Liu ◽  
...  

One of the aims of sustainable forest management is to preserve the diversity and resilience of ecosystems. Unfortunately, changes in the soil microbial communities after forest management remain unclear. We analyzed and compared the soil microbial community of a natural Quercus aliena var. acuteserrata forest after four years of four different management methods using high-throughput sequencing technology. The forest management methods were close-to-nature management (CNFM), structure-based forest management (SBFM), secondary forest comprehensive silviculture (SFCS) and unmanaged control (CK). The results showed that: (1) the soil microbial community diversity indices were not significantly different among the different management methods. (2) The relative abundance of Proteobacteria in the SBFM treatment was lower than in the CK treatment, while the relative abundance of Acidobacteria in the SBFM was significantly higher than that in the CK treatment. The relative abundance of Ascomycota was highest in the CNFM treatment, and that of Basidiomycota was lowest in the CNFM treatment. However, the relative abundance of dominant bacterial and fungal phyla was not significantly different in CK and SFCS. (3) Redundancy analysis (RDA) showed that the soil organic matter (SOM), total nitrogen (TN), and available nitrogen (AN) significantly correlated with the bacterial communities, and the available potassium (AK) was the only soil nutrient, which significantly correlated with the composition of the fungal communities. The short-term SBFM treatment altered microbial bacterial community compositions, which may be attributed to the phyla present (e.g., Proteobacteria and Acidobacteria), and the short-term CNFM treatment altered microbial fungal community compositions, which may be attributed to the phyla present (e.g., Ascomycota and Basidiomycota). Furthermore, soil nutrients could affect the dominant soil microbial communities, and its influence was greater on the bacterial community than on the fungal community.


Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 190
Author(s):  
Sangsub Cha ◽  
Yong Suk Kim ◽  
Ah Lim Lee ◽  
Dong-Hyeon Lee ◽  
Namin Koo

Soil acidification caused by anthropogenic activities adversely affects forest ecosystems by altering soil pH, which is an important factor in soil quality and function. Liming is one suggested way to solve this problem. This study was performed to evaluate the effects of liming in acidic forest soils by determining soil microbial biomass, microbial community structure, and extracellular enzyme activities associated with carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycling. Lime treatment increased soil pH by up to 40%, significantly increased organic matter (OM) content at some sites, and altered the enzyme activity of the soil. With liming, the microbial biomass appeared to be affected by the chemical properties of the soil, such as pH, Ca2+, Mg2+, K+, and exchangeable aluminum (Ale) levels, although there were no significant differences at the site level. Enzymatic activity was found to be affected by pH, Ca2+, Mg2+, electrical conductivity (EC), and Ale; and acid phosphatase (AP) and phenol oxidase (POX) activity were significantly affected by lime treatment. AP activity decreased from 0.62 to 0.66, and POX activity increased from 1.75 to 3.00 in part of the sites. The bacterial community richness was influenced by pH as a direct effect of lime treatment. The fungal community richness was associated with changes in K+ that were not due to lime treatment. The bacterial community structure was affected by soil OM, total nitrogen (TN), pH, and Ca2+; and the fungal community structure was affected by pH, Mg2+, and K+. In conclusion, changes in soil environmental conditions by liming can affect soil microbial communities and functions through direct or indirect processes, further changing ecosystem processes.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xingjia He ◽  
Hua Xie ◽  
Danmei Gao ◽  
M. Khashi U. Rahman ◽  
Xingang Zhou ◽  
...  

The application of biochar stimulates the activities of microorganisms that affect soil quality and plant growth. However, studies on the impacts of biochar mainly focus on a monoculture, its effects on interspecific interactions are rarely reported. Here, we investigated the impacts of biochar on tomato/potato–onion intercropped (TO) in a pot experiment. Tomato monoculture (T) and TO were treated with no, 0.3, 0.6, and 1.2% biochar concentrations in a pot experiment. Microbial communities from tomato rhizosphere soil were analyzed by quantitative PCR and Illumina MiSeq. The results showed that compared with the tomato monoculture, 0.6%TO and 1.2%TO significantly increased tomato yield in 2018. TO and 1.2%TO significantly increased plant height and dry weight in 2018 and 2019. Biochar treatments increased soil pH, decreased NO3--N and bulk density, and increased the absorption of N, P, and K by tomato. Bacterial and fungal abundances increased with an increase in biochar concentration, while Bacillus spp. and Pseudomonas spp. abundances showed an “increase-decrease-increase” trend. Biochar had a little effect on bacterial diversities but significantly lowered fungal diversities. TO, 0.6%TO, and 1.2%TO increased the potentially beneficial organisms (e.g., Pseudeurotium and Solirubrobacter) and lowered the potentially pathogenic organisms (e.g., Kribbella and Ilyonectria). Different concentrations of biochar affected the bacterial and fungal community structures. Redundancy analysis indicated that the bacterial community was strongly correlated with soil pH, NO3--N, and EC, while the fungal community was closely related to soil NO3--N and moisture. The network analysis showed that biochar and intercropping affected the symbiosis pattern of the microorganisms and increased the proportion of positive interactions and nitrifying microorganisms (Nitrospirae) in the microbial community. Overall, our results indicated that monoculture and intercropping with biochar improved soil physicochemical states and plant nutrient absorption, and regulated soil microbial communities, these were the main factors to promote tomato growth and increase tomato productivity.


2006 ◽  
Vol 72 (12) ◽  
pp. 7804-7812 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Hartmann ◽  
Franco Widmer

ABSTRACT Changes in the diversity and structure of soil microbial communities may offer a key to understanding the impact of environmental factors on soil quality in agriculturally managed systems. Twenty-five years of biodynamic, bio-organic, or conventional management in the DOK long-term experiment in Switzerland significantly altered soil bacterial community structures, as assessed by terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) analysis. To evaluate these results, the relation between bacterial diversity and bacterial community structures and their discrimination potential were investigated by sequence and T-RFLP analyses of 1,904 bacterial 16S rRNA gene clones derived from the DOK soils. Standard anonymous diversity indices such as Shannon, Chao1, and ACE or rarefaction analysis did not allow detection of management-dependent influences on the soil bacterial community. Bacterial community structures determined by sequence and T-RFLP analyses of the three gene libraries substantiated changes previously observed by soil bacterial community level T-RFLP profiling. This supported the value of high-throughput monitoring tools such as T-RFLP analysis for assessment of differences in soil microbial communities. The gene library approach also allowed identification of potential management-specific indicator taxa, which were derived from nine different bacterial phyla. These results clearly demonstrate the advantages of community structure analyses over those based on anonymous diversity indices when analyzing complex soil microbial communities.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jingjie Hao ◽  
Yen Ning Chai ◽  
Raziel A. Ordóñez ◽  
Emily E. Wright ◽  
Sotirios Archontoulis ◽  
...  

AbstractThe determination of how microbial community structure changes within the soil profile, will be beneficial to understanding the long-term health of agricultural soil ecosystems and will provide a first step towards elucidating how deep soil microbial communities contribute to carbon sequestration. This study aimed to investigate the differences in the microbial community abundance, composition and diversity throughout from the surface layers down to deep soils in corn and soybean fields in Iowa, USA. We used 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing of soil samples to characterize the change in microbial community structure. Our results revealed decreased richness and diversity in bacterial community structure with increasing soil depth. We also observed distinct distribution patterns of bacterial community composition along soil profiles. Soil and root data at different depths enabled us to demonstrate that the soil organic matter, soil bulk density and plant water availability were all significant factors in explaining the variation in soil microbial community composition. Our findings provide valuable insights in the changes in microbial community structure to depths of 180 cm in one of the most productive agricultural regions in the world. This knowledge will be important for future management and productivity of agroecosystems in the face of increasing demand for food and climate change.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sreejata Bandopadhyay ◽  
Henry Y. Sintim ◽  
Jennifer M. DeBruyn

AbstractPolyethylene (PE) plastic mulch films are used globally in crop production but incur considerable disposal and environmental pollution issues. Biodegradable plastic mulch films (BDMs), an alternative to PE-based films, are designed to be tilled into the soil where they are expected to be mineralized to carbon dioxide, water and microbial biomass. However inadequate research regarding the impacts of repeated incorporation of BDMs on soil microbial communities has partly contributed to limited adoption of BDMs. In this study, we evaluated the effects of BDM incorporation on soil microbial community structure and function over two years in two geographical locations: Knoxville, TN, and in Mount Vernon, WA. Treatments included four plastic BDMs, a completely biodegradable cellulose mulch, a non-biodegradable PE mulch and a no mulch plot. Bacterial community structure determined using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing revealed significant differences by location and season. Differences in bacterial communities by mulch treatment were not significant for any season in either location, except for Fall 2015 in WA where differences were observed between BDMs and no-mulch plots. Extracellular enzyme rate assays were used to characterize communities functionally, revealing significant differences by location and sampling season in both TN and WA but minimal differences between BDMs and PE treatments. Limited effects of BDM incorporation on soil bacterial community structure and soil enzyme activities when compared to PE suggest that BDMs have comparable influences on soil microbial communities, and therefore could be considered an alternative to PE.ImportancePlastic film mulches increase crop yields and improve fruit quality. Most plastic mulches are made of polyethylene (PE), which is poorly degradable, resulting in undesirable end-of-life outcomes. Biodegradable mulches (BDMs) may be a sustainable alternative to PE. BDMs are made of polymers which can be degraded by soil microbial enzymes, and are meant to be tilled into soil after use. However, uncertainty about impacts of tilled-in BDMs on soil health has restricted adoption of BDMs. Our previous research showed BDMs did not have a major effect on a wide range of soil quality indicators (Sintim et al. 2019); here we focus on soil microbial communities, showing that BDMs do not have detectable effects on soil microbial communities and their functions, at least over the short term. This informs growers and regulators about use of BDMs in crop production, paving a way for an agricultural practice that reduces environmental plastic pollution.


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