scholarly journals Plant species identity drives soil microbial community structures that persist under a following crop

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (16) ◽  
pp. 8652-8668
Author(s):  
Aaron Fox ◽  
Andreas Lüscher ◽  
Franco Widmer
Keyword(s):  
Microbial Community ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
Soil Microbial Community ◽  
Community Structures ◽  
Species Identity ◽  
Soil Microbial ◽  
Microbial Community Structures

Long-term use of green manure legume and chemical fertiliser affect soil bacterial community structures but not the rate of soil nitrate decrease when excess carbon and nitrogen are applied

Soil Research ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (6) ◽  
pp. 524 ◽  
Author(s):  
Misato Toda ◽  
Yoshitaka Uchida
Keyword(s):  
Microbial Community ◽  
Rice Straw ◽  
Soil Microbial Community ◽  
Green Manure ◽  
Community Structures ◽  
Hairy Vetch ◽  
Soil Microbial ◽  
Microbial Community Structures ◽  
Chemical Fertiliser

Legumes add not only nitrogen (N), but also carbon (C) to soils, so their effects on the soil microbial community may be different from those of chemical fertiliser. Soil microbes often compete with plants for N when excess C is applied due to their increased N immobilisation potentials and denitrification. In the present study we evaluated the effects of the 9-year use of a green manure legume (hairy vetch; Vicia villosa) in a greenhouse tomato system on soil microbial community structures as well as on the decrease of nitrate when rice straw was incorporated into the soil. Soil microbial community structures and their diversity were altered by the long-term use of legumes. The ratios of Acidobacteria, Gemmatimonadetes and Proteobacteria increased in the hairy vetch soils. The rates of decrease in nitrate were similar in soils with a history of chemical fertiliser and hairy vetch, following the addition of rice straw. In addition, during incubation with added rice straw, the difference between the two soil microbial community structures became less clear within 2 weeks. Thus, we conclude that even though growing a green manure legume changed soil bacterial community structures, this did not result in relatively faster loss of available N for plants when rice straw was added to the soils.

scholarly journals New Soil, Old Plants, and Ubiquitous Microbes: Evaluating the Potential of Incipient Basaltic Soil to Support Native Plant Growth and Influence Belowground Soil Microbial Community Composition

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aditi Sengupta ◽  
Priyanka Kushwaha ◽  
Antonia Jim ◽  
Peter A. Troch ◽  
Raina Maier
Keyword(s):  
Microbial Community ◽  
Plant Growth ◽  
Community Composition ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
Soil Microbial Community ◽  
Soil Loss ◽  
Microbial Community Composition ◽  
Parent Material ◽  
Native Plant ◽  
Soil Microbial

The plant-microbe-soil nexus is critical in maintaining biogeochemical balance of the biosphere. However, soil loss and land degradation are occurring at alarmingly high rates, with soil loss exceeding soil formation rates. This necessitates evaluating marginal soils for their capacity to support and sustain plant growth. In a greenhouse study, we evaluated the capacity of marginal incipient basaltic parent material to support native plant growth, and the associated variation in soil microbial community dynamics. Three plant species, native to the Southwestern Arizona-Sonora region were tested with three soil treatments including basaltic parent material, parent material amended with 20% compost, and potting soil. The parent material with and without compost supported germination and growth of all the plant species, though germination was lower than the potting soil. A 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing approach showed Proteobacteria to be the most abundant phyla in both parent material and potting soil, followed by Actinobacteria. Microbial community composition had strong correlations with soil characteristics but not plant attributes within a given soil material. Predictive functional potential capacity of the communities revealed chemoheterotrophy as the most abundant metabolism within the parent material, while photoheterotrophy and anoxygenic photoautotrophy were prevalent in the potting soil. These results show that marginal incipient basaltic soil has the ability to support native plant species growth, and non-linear associations may exist between plant-marginal soil-microbial interactions.

scholarly journals Evidence of within-species specialization by soil microbes and the implications for plant community diversity

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (15) ◽  
pp. 7371-7376 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenalle L. Eck ◽  
Simon M. Stump ◽  
Camille S. Delavaux ◽  
Scott A. Mangan ◽  
Liza S. Comita
Keyword(s):  
Microbial Community ◽  
Seed Dispersal ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
Plant Community ◽  
Plant Communities ◽  
Soil Microbial Community ◽  
Soil Microbes ◽  
Wild Plant ◽  
Soil Microbial ◽  
Species Specific

Microbes are thought to maintain diversity in plant communities by specializing on particular species, but it is not known whether microbes that specialize within species (i.e., on genotypes) affect diversity or dynamics in plant communities. Here we show that soil microbes can specialize at the within-population level in a wild plant species, and that such specialization could promote species diversity and seed dispersal in plant communities. In a shadehouse experiment in Panama, we found that seedlings of the native tree species, Virola surinamensis (Myristicaceae), had reduced performance in the soil microbial community of their maternal tree compared with in the soil microbial community of a nonmaternal tree from the same population. Performance differences were unrelated to soil nutrients or to colonization by mycorrhizal fungi, suggesting that highly specialized pathogens were the mechanism reducing seedling performance in maternal soils. We then constructed a simulation model to explore the ecological and evolutionary consequences of genotype-specific pathogens in multispecies plant communities. Model results indicated that genotype-specific pathogens promote plant species coexistence—albeit less strongly than species-specific pathogens—and are most effective at maintaining species richness when genetic diversity is relatively low. Simulations also revealed that genotype-specific pathogens select for increased seed dispersal relative to species-specific pathogens, potentially helping to create seed dispersal landscapes that allow pathogens to more effectively promote diversity. Combined, our results reveal that soil microbes can specialize within wild plant populations, affecting seedling performance near conspecific adults and influencing plant community dynamics on ecological and evolutionary time scales.

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