Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2017;412(1):283-297.
doi: 10.1007/s11104-016-3068-x. Epub 2016 Sep 30.

Soil resilience and recovery: rapid community responses to management changes

Penny R Hirsch  1 , Deveraj Jhurreea  1 , Jennifer K Williams  2 , Philip J Murray  2 , Tony Scott  1 , Tom H Misselbrook  2 , Keith W T Goulding  1 , Ian M Clark  1
Affiliations

Soil resilience and recovery: rapid community responses to management changes

Penny R Hirsch et al. Plant Soil. 2017.

Abstract

Background and aims: Soil degradation is a major global problem; to investigate the potential for recovery of soil biota and associated key functions, soils were monitored during the early years of conversion between permanent grassland, arable cropping and bare fallow (maintained by regular tilling). Distinct differences in soil properties had become apparent 50 years after a previous conversion.

Methods: Subplots on previously permanent grassland, arable and bare fallow soil were converted to the two alternatives, generating 9 treatments. Soil properties (soil organic carbon, mesofauna, microbial community structure and activity) were measured.

Results: After 2 years, mesofauna and microbial abundance increased where plants were grown on previously bare fallow soils and declined where grassland was converted to bare fallow treatment. Overall prokaryote community composition remained more similar to the previous treatments of the converted plots than to the new treatments but there were significant changes in the relative abundance of some groups and functional genes. Four years after conversion, SOC in arable and bare fallow soils converted to grassland had increased significantly.

Conclusions: Conversion to permanent grassland effectively replenished C in previously degraded soil; the soil microbiome showed significant conversion-related changes; plant-driven recovery was quicker than C loss in the absence of plants.

Keywords: Bare fallow soil; Grass; Nitrogen-cycling genes; Soil bacteria; Soil fungi; Soil mesofauna; Soil microbiome; Soil organic carbon; Wheat.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Soil organic C and microbial biomass in conversion experiment: (a) total % C for soil collected in October at the start and during first 4 years of conversion, measured by Leco combustion analysis - one-way ANOVA (F 8, 126 = 354.54; p < .001) showed significant differences according to the original permanent treatments; *denotes significant increase in conversion compared to the corresponding permanent treatment in 2012; (b) total DNA yields from soils as a proxy for microbial biomass, collected in October at the start, and during first 3 years of conversion - one-way ANOVA (F 8, 81 = 107.75; p < .001) showed significant differences according to the original permanent treatments; *denotes significant increase in conversion compared to the corresponding permanent treatment in 2011. Standard errors of differences of means (s.e.d.) calculated for each set of plots derived from the same original treatment are shown; bf bare fallow
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Invertebrate counts in soil sampled in October 2010. bf bare fallow. The Prostigmata, Oribatida and Mesostigmata are mites; Entomobryomorpha, Symphyphleona and Poduromorpha are collembola. Total numbers of mites, collembola and all mesofauna were log-transformed to meet assumptions for ANOVA; total mesofauna (F 8, 71 = 18.11, p < .001) and the number of mites (F8, 71 = 16.18, p < .001) were significantly different in all permanent plots, the number of collembola (F8, 68 = 10.56, p < .001) was significantly higher in permanent grass than in bare fallow, increasing significantly when bare fallow and arable were converted to grass
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Non-metric MDS (stress = 0.08) comparing the presence and relative abundance of 16S rRNA amplicons identified to OTU level, soil collected in 2011, bf bare fallow
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Non-metric MDS (stress = 0.24) of fungal community ITS profiles at OTU level, soil collected in 2011, bf bare fallow
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Abarenkov K, Nilsson RH, Larsson K-H, Alexander IJ, Eberhardt U, Erland S, Hoiland K, Kjoller R, Larsson E, Pennanen T, Sen R, Taylor AFS, Tedersoo L, Ursing BM, Vralstad T, Liimatainen K, Peintner U, Koljalg U. The UNITE database for molecular identification of fungi - recent updates and future perspectives. New Phytol. 2010;186:281–285. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-8137.2009.03160.x. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Andres P, Mateos E. Soil mesofaunal responses to post-mining restoration treatments. Appl Soil Ecol. 2006;33:67–78. doi: 10.1016/j.apsoil.2005.08.007. - DOI
    1. Beck S, Powell JR, Drigo B, Cairney JWG, Anderson IC. The role of stochasticity differs in the assembly of soil- and root-associated fungal communities. Soil Biol Biochem. 2015;80:18–25. doi: 10.1016/j.soilbio.2014.09.010. - DOI
    1. Bellamy PH, Loveland PJ, Bradley RI, Lark RM, Kirk GJD. Carbon losses from all soils across England and Wales 1978–2003. Nature. 2005;437:245–248. doi: 10.1038/nature04038. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Caporaso JG, Kuczynski J, Stombaugh J, Bittinger K, Bushman FD, Costello EK, Fierer N, Pena AG, Goodrich JK, Gordon JI, Huttley GA, Kelley ST, Knights D, Koenig JE, Ley RE, Lozupone CA, McDonald D, Muegge BD, Pirrung M, Reeder J, Sevinsky JR, Tumbaugh PJ, Walters WA, Widmann J, Yatsunenko T, Zaneveld J, Knight R. QIIME allows analysis of high-throughput community sequencing data. Nat Methods. 2010;7:335–336. doi: 10.1038/nmeth.f.303. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources