Studying the obstacles associated with continuous cropping is necessary for sustainable agricultural production. Phenolic acids play an important role in continuous cropping systems, although their mechanism of action in these systems remains unclear. Using High-performance Liquid Chromatography, we characterized the changes in phenolic acid contents in soils that had been continuously cropped with tobacco for different time periods and evaluated the interactions between soil physicochemical properties, bacterial community structure and diversity, and phenolic acids. Prolonged continuous cropping was associated with a significant increase in the content of phenolic acids and a significant decrease in soil pH and bacterial diversity. A significant negative correlation between pH and phenolic acids content was observed, suggesting that soil acidification potentially leads to the accumulation of phenolic acids. The Mantel test indicated that phenolic acids were positively associated with relative bacterial abundance (
R
= 0.480,
P
< 0.01), signifying that the accumulation of phenolic acids is a potential factor leading to changes in bacterial community structure. Continuous cropping lowered the soil pH, which stimulated phenolic acid accumulation and consequently altered the bacterial community structure and diversity, ultimately impacting tobacco plant growth.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.