Accounting for soil biotic effects on soil health and crop productivity in the design of crop rotations

Abstract

There is an urgent need for novel agronomic improvements capable of boosting crop yields while alleviating environmental impacts. One such approach is the use of optimized crop rotations. However, a set of measurements that can serve as guiding principles for the design of crop rotations is lacking. Crop rotations take advantage of niche complementarity, enabling the optimization of nutrient use and the reduction of pests and specialist pathogen loads. However, despite the recognized importance of plant-soil microbial interactions and feedbacks for crop yield and soil health, this is ignored in the selection and management of crops for rotation systems. We review the literature and propose criteria for the design of crop rotations focusing on the roles of soil biota and feedback on crop productivity and soil health. We consider that identifying specific key organisms or consortia capable of influencing plant productivity is more important as a predictor of soil health and crop productivity than assessing the overall soil microbial diversity per se. As such, we propose that setting up soil feedback studies and applying genetic sequencing tools towards the development of soil biotic community databases has a strong potential to enable the establishment of improved soil health indicators for optimized crop rotations.

Understanding and Enhancing Soil Biological Health: The Solution for Reversing Soil Degradation

“…Many assessments of soil health based on measurements of soil microorganisms have relied on estimates of total biomass and activity. The following agricultural practices have been observed to modify the whole soil biological community (biomass, numbers, diversity, activity) in a generally positive manner: no till or conservation tillage, cover cropping, elimination of fallow, incorporation of perennial crops, retention of crop residues, diverse crop rotation, use of organic fertilizer sources, and implementation of integrated pest management practices (Figure 4) [75,[140][141][142]. Many of these same practices have been shown to increase PGPR/B and reduce DRB [100,101].…”

“…Fallow is associated with poor nutrient conservation [169], lowered AM fungi populations [140,170] and other impacts to soil health that affect crop production [171]. While crop rotation is known to benefit crop production via modification of the soil microbial communities, many details are still unknown [142]. Specific crop sequences have been shown to be particularly effective for controlling weeds, but often the mechanism remains unexplained, and probably involves modification to the soil biota [172].…”

Synergistic and antagonistic effects of mixing monospecific soils on plant-soil feedbacks

“…This study therefore exemplifies how soil microbiomes can be manipulated to enhance disease resistance . Our study with the cut flower chrysanthemum also highlights the role and potential of using plant-soil feedbacks in influencing the health and yield of a horticultural crops (Dias et al 2015;Pineda et al 2017).…”

Remote Sensing and Cropping Practices: A Review

“…While monocropping is generally practiced in intensive agricultural farms, where large amounts of resources are available to improve the production process, crop rotation is a necessity for low-input farms. Crop rotation is a reasoned process where choosing the crop species for succession is not random, but follows recommended patterns [9]. For example, a nitrogen depleting crop should be followed by a nitrogen-fixing crop, and a low residue crop by a high biomass cover crop [10].…”