Responses of Soil Fungal Communities to Lime Application in Wheat Fields in the Pacific Northwest

Abstract

Liming is an effective agricultural practice and is broadly used to ameliorate soil acidification in agricultural ecosystems. Our understanding of the impacts of lime application on the soil fungal community is scarce. In this study, we explored the responses of fungal communities to liming at two locations with decreasing soil pH in Oregon in the Pacific Northwest using high-throughput sequencing (Illumina MiSeq). Our results revealed that the location and liming did not significantly affect soil fungal diversity and richness, and the impact of soil depth on fungal diversity varied among locations. In contrast, location and soil depth had a strong effect on the structure and composition of soil fungal communities, whereas the impact of liming was much smaller, and location- and depth-dependent. Interestingly, families Lasiosphaeriaceae, Piskurozymaceae, and Sordariaceae predominated in the surface soil (0–7.5 cm) and were positively correlated with soil OM and aluminum, and negatively correlated with pH. The family Kickxellaceae which predominated in deeper soil (15–22.5 cm), had an opposite response to soil OM. Furthermore, some taxa in Ascomycota, such as Hypocreales, Peziza and Penicillium, were increased by liming at one of the locations (Moro). In conclusion, these findings suggest that fungal community structure and composition rather than fungal diversity responded to location, soil depth and liming. Compared to liming, location and depth had a stronger effect on the soil fungal community, but some specific fungal taxa shifted with lime application.

Patterns in soil microbial diversity across Europe

“…Similarly, fungal saprotrophs and fungal plant pathogens were negatively linked to calcium carbonate content while AMF were positively linked to it. Studies linking calcium carbonate to fungal functional groups at a large scale are virtually missing and further investigations could contribute to a better assessment of lime application impacts on fungal functional groups 59 . As the relationship between the addition of calcium carbonate and deacidification of soil pH is non-linear 60 , being able to relate both lime application and targeted pH correction to variations in fungal symbionts and fungal pathogens in soils may help to quantitatively assess the impacts of this agricultural practice on soil functioning, and contribute to better decisions on soil management.…”

Weeds in the Alfalfa Field Decrease Rhizosphere Microbial Diversity and Association Networks in the North China Plain

“…For the fungal families, weed soils were enriched with Chaetomiaceae , which is known to degrade recalcitrant plant material ( Habtewold et al, 2020 ), thereby releasing plant-derived cellulose that supports the growth of bacterial and fungal communities ( Eichorst and Kuske, 2012 ). Nectriaceae is a known soil-borne pathogenic family of fungi that is positively associated with certain plant traits (shoot and root biomass; Yin et al, 2021 ). Our results show that more harmful fungal taxa with known pathogenic traits were overrepresented in Ms. rhizosphere soil, including Nectriaceae and Pleosporaceae.…”

PGPR-Soil Microbial Communities’ Interactions and Their Influence on Wheat Growth Promotion and Resistance Induction against Mycosphaerella graminicola

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