Cover crops prevent the deleterious effect of nitrogen fertilisation on bacterial diversity by maintaining the carbon content of ploughed soil

Verzeaux, Julien; Alahmad, Abdelrahman; Habbib, Hazzar; Nivelle, Élodie; Roger, David; Lacoux, Jérôme; Decocq, Guillaume; Hirel, Bertrand; Catterou, Manuella; Spicher, Fabien; Dubois, Frédéric; Duclercq, Jérôme; Tétu, Thierry

doi:10.1016/j.geoderma.2016.06.035

Cited by 86 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…Although monitoring soil microbial communities over time would have captured a more complete picture of the studied system, we can reasonably assume that the results of our single sampling readily reflect the cumulative effects of the different treatments under investigation, given ( Figure S1); and (d) that we adopted a comparative design between plots that simultaneously underwent a complete rotation over the last 4 years. In our study, the distribution of bacterial diversity along the soil profile paralleled changes in soil chemical features, with an increased soil bacterial diversity in CC, which is likely a consequence of the range of C and N compounds originating from root excretion and buried fresh organic matter (Mommer, Kirkegaard, & van Ruijven, 2016;Verzeaux et al, 2016). to increase functional complementarity via niche partitioning and thus, the stability of microbial ecosystem functions (Wittebolle et al, 2009), such as mineralization and denitrification (Bell, Newman, Silverman, Turner, & Lilley, 2005;Salles, Poly, Schmid, & Roux, 2009).…”

Section: Plant Cover Increases Taxonomic and Phylogenetic Not Funcmentioning

confidence: 51%

“…Here, we aim to fill this gap by assessing the combined effect of CC and N fertilization on these relationships. N fertilization has been previously shown to strongly reduce C and N contents in the topsoil (0-10 cm; Verzeaux et al, 2016;Zhong, Yan, & Shangguan, 2015), due to a loss of bacterial diversity, but this effect can be counterbalanced by the incorporation of a CC between two main crops (e.g., between maize and wheat in Verzeaux et al, 2016). However, this preliminary experiment ignored deeper soil horizons (<10 cm), assessed soil bacterial communities at the phylum taxonomic level, and did not relate community composition to community functions.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Cover crops in arable lands increase functional complementarity and redundancy of bacterial communities

Alahmad

Decocq

Spicher

et al. 2018

Journal of Applied Ecology

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Reducing the deleterious effects of intensive tillage and fertilization on ecosystem integrity and human health is challenging for sustainable agriculture. The use of cover crops has been advocated as a suitable technique for this purpose, but scientific evidence to support this has been scarce. After four years and a complete rotation, including wheat, maize, and green pea as main crops in a ploughing system, we investigated the respective and combined effects of cover crops and nitrogen fertilization on soil chemical and biological properties using a controlled experiment combining soil chemical analyses, high‐throughput sequencing and community level physiological profiles. Cover crops impeded the soil carbon and nitrogen depletion induced by intensive tillage, not only in the topsoil but also within deeper soil horizons, where more specialized bacterial communities established. Cover crops induced a significant shift in soil bacterial community diversity and composition, which was associated with changes in soil chemical features and bacterial metabolic activities along the entire soil profile. Cover crops enhanced soil resilience to nitrogen fertilization by increasing functional redundancy and complementarity within soil bacterial communities and across soil horizons. Synthesis and applications. In the ploughing systems commonly used for intensive agriculture in Western Europe, the use of cover crops fosters a high functional diversity among soil bacteria and thus can help to achieve a more sustainable agriculture by reducing nitrogen fertilization while maintaining yields.

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Section: Plant Cover Increases Taxonomic and Phylogenetic Not Funcmentioning

confidence: 51%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Cover crops in arable lands increase functional complementarity and redundancy of bacterial communities

Alahmad

Decocq

Spicher

et al. 2018

Journal of Applied Ecology

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“…The correlation between bacterial numbers and OM is consistent with carbon as the primary driver of bacterial proliferation in the soil [ 56 , 57 ], with most of the carbon tied up in the top soil layer in the absence of tillage [ 12 ]. Cover crops have been shown to offset the loss in microbial diversity and biomass often observed in systems using intensive mineral fertilizer application [ 58 , 59 ]. The results of this study, and particularly the analysis of the STCC treatment, showed that cover crops can reverse some of the effects of tillage as well, in particular in re-establishing a biomass gradient with depth ( Fig 1 and S1 Fig ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-term use of cover crops and no-till shift soil microbial community life strategies in agricultural soil

et al. 2018

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Reducing tillage and growing cover crops, widely recommended practices for boosting soil health, have major impacts on soil communities. Surprisingly little is known about their impacts on soil microbial functional diversity, and especially so in irrigated Mediterranean ecosystems. In long-term experimental plots at the West Side Research and Extension Center in California’s Central Valley, we characterized soil microbial communities in the presence or absence of physical disturbance due to tillage, in the presence or absence of cover crops, and at three depths: 0–5, 5–15 and 15–30 cm. This characterization included qPCR for bacterial and archaeal abundances, DNA sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene, and phylogenetic estimation of two ecologically important microbial traits (rRNA gene copy number and genome size). Total (bacterial + archaeal) diversity was higher in no-till than standard till; diversity increased with depth in no-till but decreased with depth in standard till. Total bacterial numbers were higher in cover cropped plots at all depths, while no-till treatments showed higher numbers in 0–5 cm but lower numbers at lower depths compared to standard tillage. Trait estimates suggested that different farming practices and depths favored distinctly different microbial life strategies. Tillage in the absence of cover crops shifted microbial communities towards fast growing competitors, while no-till shifted them toward slow growing stress tolerators. Across all treatment combinations, increasing depth resulted in a shift towards stress tolerators. Cover crops shifted the communities towards ruderals–organisms with wider metabolic capacities and moderate rates of growth. Overall, our results are consistent with decreasing nutrient availability with soil depth and under no-till treatments, bursts of nutrient availability and niche homogenization under standard tillage, and increases in C supply and variety provided by cover crops. Understanding how agricultural practices shift microbial abundance, diversity and life strategies, such as presented here, can assist with designing farming systems that can support high yields, while enhancing C sequestration and increasing resilience to climate change.

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“…However, under such high N fertilization inputs, over 50% and up to 75% of the mineral N applied to the field is not taken up by the plant and is lost by leaching into the soil [13]. Such a N loss leads to the eutrophication of freshwater and marine ecosystems [14][15][16] and to the emissions of N 2 O (nitrous oxide), which has a global warming potential almost 300 times that of CO 2 [17]. The chemical synthesis of N fertilizers also increases crop production costs [18,19].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Variability for Nitrogen Management in Genetically-Distant Maize (Zea mays L.) Lines: Impact of Post-Silking Nitrogen Limiting Conditions

et al. 2018

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The impact of nitrogen (N)-limiting conditions after silking on kernel yield (KY)-related traits and whole plant N management was investigated using fifteen maize lines representative of plant genetic diversity in Europe and America. A large level of genetic variability of these traits was observed in the different lines when post-silking fertilization of N was strongly reduced. Under such N-fertilization conditions, four different groups of lines were identified on the basis of KY and kernel N content. Although the pattern of N management, including N uptake and N use was variable in the four groups of lines, a number of them were able to maintain both a high yield and a high kernel N content by increasing shoot N remobilization. No obvious relationship between the genetic background of the lines and their mode of N management was found. When N was limiting after silking, N remobilization appeared to be a good predictive marker for identifying maize lines that were able to maintain a high yield and a high kernel N content irrespective of their female flowering date. The use of N remobilization as a trait to select maize genotypes adapted to low N input is discussed.

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Cover crops prevent the deleterious effect of nitrogen fertilisation on bacterial diversity by maintaining the carbon content of ploughed soil

Cited by 86 publications

References 58 publications

Cover crops in arable lands increase functional complementarity and redundancy of bacterial communities

Cover crops in arable lands increase functional complementarity and redundancy of bacterial communities

Long-term use of cover crops and no-till shift soil microbial community life strategies in agricultural soil

Variability for Nitrogen Management in Genetically-Distant Maize (Zea mays L.) Lines: Impact of Post-Silking Nitrogen Limiting Conditions

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