How Tillage and Crop Rotation Change the Distribution Pattern of Fungi

Abstract

Massive sequencing of fungal communities showed that climatic factors, followed by edaphic and spatial variables, are feasible predictors of fungal richness and community composition. This study, based on a long-term field experiment with tillage and no-tillage management since 1995 and with a crop rotation introduced in 2009, confirmed that tillage practices shape soil properties and impact soil fungal communities. Results highlighted higher biodiversity of saprotrophic fungi in soil sites with low disturbance and an inverse correlation between the biodiversity of ectomycorrhizal and saprotrophic fungi. We speculated how their mutual exclusion could be due to a substrate-mediated niche partitioning or by space segregation. Moreover, where the soil was ploughed, the species were evenly distributed. There was higher spatial variability in the absence of ploughing, with fungal taxa distributed according to a small-scale pattern, corresponding to micro-niches that probably remained undisturbed and heterogeneously distributed. Many differentially represented OTUs in all the conditions investigated were unidentified species or OTUs matching at high taxa level (i.e., phylum, class, order). Among the fungi with key roles in all the investigated conditions, there were several yeast species known to have pronounced endemism in soil and are also largely unidentified. In addition to yeasts, other fungal species emerged as either indicator of a kind of management or as strongly associated with a specific condition. Plant residues played a substantial role in defining the assortment of species.

Agriculture by Irrigation Modifies Microbial Communities and Soil Functions Associated With Enhancing C Uptake of a Steppe Semi-Arid Soil in Northern Patagonia

“…However, in the absence of direct experimental evidence, we cannot explain the positive associations between SOM and the saprotrophic decomposers phyla Kickxellomycota, Chitridiomycota, and Morteriellomycota. Despite our observations being in line with previous studies in agricultural soils (64,65), the causal mechanism behind the correlations remains uncertain, and further evidence is necessary to disentangle the role of minor phyla in soil C cycling, EPS synthesis and aggregate formation.…”

Can multi-cropping affect soil microbial stoichiometry and functional diversity, decreasing potential soil-borne pathogens? A study on European organic vegetable cropping systems

“…Understanding the composition, traits, and functions of soil organisms, as well as their ecological interactions, is imperative to understand which agricultural practices can maintain plant biodiversity, soil health, and productivity (van der Heijden et al, 1998 ; Francaviglia et al, 2004 ; Zhang J. et al, 2020 ). Recently, it was found that crop diversification and soil disturbance strongly impact on microbiome functional diversity, as plant residues play a substantial role in defining the assortment of microbial species (Figueiredo Santos and Olivares, 2021 ; Orrú et al, 2021 ). The fungi:bacteria ratio in soil microbial community depends on environmental changes and its impact on soil functioning is a key element in the assessment of microbiome functional diversity (Strickland and Rousk, 2010 ).…”

“…This method allows us to focus on multiple species (i.e., bacterial and fungi communities) and their related functionality in soil (Moscatelli et al, 2018 ), for example, nutrient availability, stress resistance, or plant diseases (Sirangelo and Calabrò, 2020 ). The use of NGS to investigate agricultural soils, where crop diversification and no tillage, was applied for 10 years showed that some fungal species worked as indicators of soil disturbance in intensively tilled soils, while others seemed to be mostly associated with chemical characteristics of plant residues accumulated on soil surface (Ashworth et al, 2017 ; Orrú et al, 2021 ).…”

Differences in microbial diversity and environmental factors in ploughing-treated tobacco soil

“…In the study of wheat and maize rotation, it was found that the effect of tillage on the depth decay of bacterial community was significantly smaller than that under no tillage, and the depth decay of fungal community was significantly greater under reduced tillage than that under tillage and no tillage ( Sun et al, 2018 ). Furthermore, the plowed soil could produce an even distribution of fungal species ( Orrù et al, 2021 ). And the vertical rotation cultivation was helpful to improve the yield and profit of drought resistance of potato ( Zhang et al, 2018 ).…”