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. 2023 Dec;54(4):3187-3200.
doi: 10.1007/s42770-023-01148-2. Epub 2023 Oct 20.

Crop rotation and inoculation increase soil bradyrhizobia population, soybean grain yields, and profitability

Alisson Wilson Santos Sanzovo  1 , Danilo Augusto Silvestre  1   2 , Kelly Campos Guerra Pinheiro Goes  1 , Bruno Volsi  1   2 , Leonel Vinicius Constantino  2 , Ivan Bordin  1 , Tiago Santos Telles  1   2 , Diva Souza Andrade  3
Affiliations

Crop rotation and inoculation increase soil bradyrhizobia population, soybean grain yields, and profitability

Alisson Wilson Santos Sanzovo et al. Braz J Microbiol. 2023 Dec.

Abstract

Crop rotation and rhizobial inoculation are strategies to increase yield by means of organic matter addition and modulation of microbial diversity. However, the extent to which these agricultural practices change soil Bradyrhizobium populations, soybean grain yield, and economic benefits to farmers is unclear. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the interaction between crop rotation and inoculation of soybean (Glycine max) cultivated in two contrasting soils (clayey and sandy soil) on biological nitrogen fixation components, grain yields, and profits. Field experiments with a three-year crop rotation system were carried out to compare effects of inoculation and crop rotations on soil chemical attributes, bradyrhizobia most probable number (MPN) and diversity, soybean nodulation, grain yield, and economic indicators of inoculation in different crop rotations. The crop rotation did not affect the soil MPN cells of bradyrhizobia, but the inoculation and the soil sampling time did, ranging from 3.61-4.42 to 4.40-4.82 in the sandy soil, while in the clayey soil they were from 5.19-6.34 to 6.61-7.14 in Log10 per g of soil with higher population after harvest of summer crops. In the clayey soil, crop rotation influenced soybean nodulation. The grain yield of inoculated soybean in the clayey soil was higher than that in the sandy soil. Soybean inoculation with Bradyrhizobium spp. increased the profitability of agricultural production systems by up to 45% in clayey soil and up to 7% in sandy soil.

Keywords: Agricultural economics; Biological nitrogen fixation; Bradyrhizobium; Glycine max; Grain yield; Most probable number.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Dendrogram of genetic similarity of isolates of Bradyrhizobium isolated from soybean nodules. a Clayey soil (C1-C6) and b sandy soil (S1-S5). N = non-inoculated. I = inoculated with Bradyrhizobium japonicum (SEMIA 5079) and B. diazoefficiens (SEMIA 5080). Treatment descriptions are given in Table 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Heatmap analysis between most probable number (MPN), nodule number per plant (NN), nodule dry weight (NDW), shoot dry mass (SDM), root dry mass (RDM), shoot nitrogen concentration (SNC), shoot nitrogen uptake (SNU), grain nitrogen concentration (GNC), yield grain (YIE), nitrogen in the grain in kg ha−1 (NGU) of soybean cultivated in the clayey (Londrina), and sandy (Umuarama) soils and inoculated (I) or non-inoculated (N) with Bradyrhizobium spp
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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