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. 2019 Apr;8(4):e00676.
doi: 10.1002/mbo3.676. Epub 2018 Jun 13.

Tillage intensity and pasture in rotation effectively shape soil microbial communities at a landscape scale

Cédric Le Guillou  1 , Nicolas Chemidlin Prévost-Bouré  2 , Battle Karimi  1 , Nouraya Akkal-Corfini  3 , Samuel Dequiedt  1   4 , Virginie Nowak  1 , Sébastien Terrat  1   5 , Safya Menasseri-Aubry  3   6   7 , Valérie Viaud  3 , Pierre-Alain Maron  1 , Lionel Ranjard  1
Affiliations

Tillage intensity and pasture in rotation effectively shape soil microbial communities at a landscape scale

Cédric Le Guillou et al. Microbiologyopen. 2019 Apr.

Abstract

Soil microorganisms are essential to agroecosystem functioning and services. Yet, we still lack information on which farming practices can effectively shape the soil microbial communities. The aim of this study was to identify the farming practices, which are most effective at positively or negatively modifying bacterial and fungal diversity while considering the soil environmental variation at a landscape scale. A long-term research study catchment (12 km2 ) representative of intensive mixed farming (livestock and crop) in Western Europe was investigated using a regular grid for soil sampling (n = 186). Farming systems on this landscape scale were described in terms of crop rotation, use of fertilizer, soil tillage, pesticides treatments, and liming. Molecular microbial biomass was estimated by soil DNA recovery. Bacterial and fungal communities were analyzed by 16S and 18S rRNA gene pyrosequencing. Microbial biomass was significantly stimulated by the presence of pasture during the crop rotation since temporary and permanent pastures, as compared to annual crops, increased the soil microbial biomass by +23% and +93% respectively. While soil properties (mainly pH) explained much of the variation in bacterial diversity, soil tillage seemed to be the most influential among the farming practices. A 2.4% increase in bacterial richness was observed along our gradient of soil tillage intensity. In contrast, farming practices were the predominant drivers of fungal diversity, which was mainly determined by the presence of pastures during the crop rotation. Compared to annual crops, temporary and permanent pastures increased soil fungal richness by +10% and +14.5%, respectively. Altogether, our landscape-scale investigation allows the identification of farming practices that can effectively shape the soil microbial abundance and diversity, with the goal to improve agricultural soil management and soil ecological integrity.

Keywords: agricultural practices; bacteria; farmers; fungi; sustainable landuse.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Maps of the Naizin landscape indicating (a) the locations of the sampling points, (b) the variations of soil types, (c) the variations of land uses
Figure 2
Figure 2
Mapping of microbial descriptors across the studied agricultural landscape. (a–c) Maps of microbial molecular biomass (μg/g soil), bacterial richness (number of OTUs) and fungal richness (number of OTUs). (d–f) Variograms and parameters of kriging models for the three microbial descriptors
Figure 3
Figure 3
Variance partitioning of the molecular microbial biomass, and bacterial and fungal diversity variables as a function of soil physicochemical and farming practice factors (and their interactions). The amount of explained variance corresponds to the adjusted r 2 values of the contextual groups using partial redundancy analysis. The significance level of the contribution of the sets of variables is indicated as follows: *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, ns = nonsignificant
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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