Ecosystem Functions of Microbial Consortia in Sustainable Agriculture

Abstract

Knowledge of the agricultural soil microbiota, of the microbial consortia that comprise it, and the promotion of agricultural practices that maintain and encourage them, is a promising way to improve soil quality for sustainable agriculture and to provide food security. Although numerous studies have demonstrated the positive effects of beneficial soil microorganisms on crop yields and quality, the use of microbial consortia in agriculture remains low. Microbial consortia have more properties than an individual microbial inoculum, due to the synergy of the microorganisms that populate them. This review describes the main characteristics, ecosystem functions, crop benefits, and biotechnological applications of microbial consortia composed of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR), and Actinobacteria, to promote the restoration of agricultural soils and, consequently, the quality and health of agricultural crops. The aim is to provide knowledge that will contribute to the development of sustainable and sufficiently productive agriculture, which will adapt in a good way to the pace of the growing human population and to climate change.

Identification of Beneficial Microbial Consortia and Bioactive Compounds with Potential as Plant Biostimulants for a Sustainable Agriculture

“…The selection of suitable and compatible strains is one of the prerequisites in the use of multi-strain inoculants and represents a crucial aspect in formulating synthetic microbial consortia as bioinoculants [ 3 , 79 ]. Following the results of the literature survey and taking also into account the microbial strains with pre-established growth supporting abilities available from SIMBA consortium ( Table 1 ), a total of 25 microbial strains were selected (see Table 1 ).…”

“…Multi-strain PGPMs mixtures, so called microbial consortia, appear to have greater efficacy on improvement of plant-growth than single strains [ 81 ]. There are two main strategies to select consortium members: (1) top-down or natural microbial consortia (from complex to simple) approach: the consortium members are the identified keystone players from one specific complex microbial community [ 18 ] and (2) the bottom-up or synthetic microbial consortia (from simple to complex) approach: the consortium members are selected from an extensive pool of microorganisms isolated from various sources, which may possess the desired traits [ 79 , 82 , 83 ]. In the present work, a bottom-up approach was used to design simple microbial communities with a defined composition of 5 or more species/strains.…”

Insights into the soil microbiome and prospects for its manipulation for improved pasture resilience

“…Examples such as rhizobia for fixing N and use of microbial biocontrol agents for pasture pests demonstrate how soil microbiology can support the pasture sector. Although many of the current examples mentioned are linked to individual microbes, investigations targeting microbial consortia are becoming more common (Kong et al 2018;Woo & Pepe 2018;Aguilar-Paredes et al 2020). While there are still many challenges, soil microbiome research has made great progress in the past decade with continuous development of improved 'omics' technologies and data analysis techniques.…”

Connecting the use of Biofertilizers on Maize silage or Meadows with Progress in Milk Quality and Economy

“…Biofertilizers, whose use is considered an acclaimed strategy for multifunctional soil management, as regard the biological and physical features, and an increasing plant resistance to pathogens and to biotic and abiotic stress, represent a promising tool that may provide a response to the new challenges of modern agriculture 1 . In general, the quantitative aspect is considered the most, after encouraging favorable evidence has emerged concerning legumes (+19%), vegetables (+17%), cereals (+15%) and roots (+10%)…”