TY - JOUR
T1 - Cover crop mixtures do not assemble markedly distinct soil microbiotas as compared to monocultures in a multilocation field experiment
AU - Maciá-Vicente, Jose G.
AU - Cazzaniga, Sara
AU - Duhamel, Marie
AU - van den Beld, Luc
AU - Lombaers, Carin
AU - Visser, Johnny
AU - Elzes, Geert
AU - Deckers, Jos
AU - Jongenelen, Peter Jan
AU - Molendijk, Leendert
AU - Mommer, Liesje
AU - Helder, Johannes
AU - Postma, Joeke
N1 - Data archiving: ENA (offline)
PY - 2024/10
Y1 - 2024/10
N2 - Cover crops are used in cropping systems to enhance ecosystem services, such as soil resilience to erosion or microbial activity. Different cover crops are selected to steer specific processes, but whether cover crop mixtures have an added value over monocultures remains debated. Here, we investigated if cover crop mixtures accumulate soil microbiotas distinct from those of monocultures, potentially leading to more varied microbially-driven soil functions. We performed a field experiment at three locations in the Netherlands, each including nine cover crop monocultures, five- and eight-species mixtures, and a fallow control. After three months, we measured cover crop biomass and profiled soil bacterial, fungal, and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities via amplicon sequencing. The different crop monocultures produced similar biomass across all three locations, and mixtures had average productivity compared to monocultures. The diversity and community structure of soil microbial communities was primarily determined by the geographical location, and then by cover crop treatment at each location. Although the cover crop species affected the soil microbiome differently, cover crop mixtures did neither increase microbial diversity nor the overall community differentiation compared to monocultures. Our results suggest that mixing cover crop species does not significantly influence microbially-driven soil functions, at least in short-term crop rotations.
AB - Cover crops are used in cropping systems to enhance ecosystem services, such as soil resilience to erosion or microbial activity. Different cover crops are selected to steer specific processes, but whether cover crop mixtures have an added value over monocultures remains debated. Here, we investigated if cover crop mixtures accumulate soil microbiotas distinct from those of monocultures, potentially leading to more varied microbially-driven soil functions. We performed a field experiment at three locations in the Netherlands, each including nine cover crop monocultures, five- and eight-species mixtures, and a fallow control. After three months, we measured cover crop biomass and profiled soil bacterial, fungal, and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities via amplicon sequencing. The different crop monocultures produced similar biomass across all three locations, and mixtures had average productivity compared to monocultures. The diversity and community structure of soil microbial communities was primarily determined by the geographical location, and then by cover crop treatment at each location. Although the cover crop species affected the soil microbiome differently, cover crop mixtures did neither increase microbial diversity nor the overall community differentiation compared to monocultures. Our results suggest that mixing cover crop species does not significantly influence microbially-driven soil functions, at least in short-term crop rotations.
KW - Agriculture
KW - Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi
KW - Biodiversity
KW - Cover crops
KW - Microbiome
KW - Pathogens
KW - Productivity
KW - Soil
U2 - 10.1016/j.apsoil.2024.105573
DO - 10.1016/j.apsoil.2024.105573
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85200578607
SN - 0929-1393
VL - 202
JO - Applied Soil Ecology
JF - Applied Soil Ecology
M1 - 105573
ER -