Selection of fungi by candidate cover crops

Benítez, María‐Soledad; Taheri, Wendy I.; Lehman, R. Michael

doi:10.1016/j.apsoil.2016.03.016

Cited by 37 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 105 publications

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“…Genus-level abundances of OTUs assigned to the AM fungal group were dependent on cover crop identity, as well as CC Function. Previous studies have reported that cover crop effects on AM fungi, including biomass and community composition, seem to be dependent on cover crop species identity 19,21,23,25,[36][37][38][57][58][59] . Our study indicates that not only are the effects dependent on CC identity but they vary among genera of AM fungi.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Fungal community shifts in soils with varied cover crop treatments and edaphic properties

Cloutier

Murrell

Barbercheck

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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Cover cropping is proposed to enhance soil microbial diversity and activity, with cover crop type affecting microbial groups in different ways. We compared fungal community compositions of bulk soils differing by cover crop treatment, season, and edaphic properties in the third year of an organic, conventionally tilled rotation of corn-soybean-wheat planted with winter cover crops. We used Illumina amplicon sequencing fungal assemblages to evaluate effects of nine treatments, each replicated four times, consisting of six single winter cover crop species, a three-species mixture, a six-species mixture, and fallow. Alpha-diversity of fungal communities was not affected by cover crop species identity, function, or diversity. Sampling season influenced community composition as well as genus-level abundances of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi. Cover crop mixtures, specifically the three-species mixture, had distinct AM fungal community compositions, while cereal rye and forage radish monocultures had unique Core OTU compositions. Soil texture, pH, permanganate oxidizable carbon, and chemical properties including Cu, and P were important variables in models of fungal OTU distributions across groupings. These results showed how fungal composition and potential functions were shaped by cover crop treatment as well as soil heterogeneity.Microbial diversity is an important aspect of soil health, as soil microbial communities mediate many biogeochemical processes and are sensitive to disturbances that can lead to long-lasting ecosystem effects 1 . Greater richness and evenness in the representation of bacteria and fungi in soils can help mitigate plant responses to environmental stressors 2 . With the advent of high-throughput DNA sequencing technologies that allow for more detailed genetic information, we can determine if and how microbial compositions shift in response to disturbance and edaphic differences and, to some degree, what those changes may mean for ecosystem processes.Cover cropping is the practice of growing ground-covering crops during the intervals between successive cash crops. Cover cropping imparts numerous benefits to soil, including the addition of organic carbon (C) from roots, root exudates, and aboveground residues and the improvement of soil structure and tilth 3-5 . Ecosystem services provided by cover crops include protection from soil erosion, enhanced soil water-holding capacity, reduced weed colonization and growth, plant resilience to pathogens and increased crop yield 5,6 . Legume cover crops provide biologically fixed nitrogen (N), while grasses take up excess soil inorganic N and improve N retention. A complete suite of ecosystem services is not deliverable by any one cover crop species. Thus, planting mixtures of cover crops has been proposed as a means to provide varied combinations of ecosystem services based on the functional traits of individual cover crop species 5,7-10 .Cover crops may alter microbial community diversity and function by varying the types and composition of exuded C...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(ITS) regions amplified from DNA extracts [21][22][23][24][25] . Overall, consistent patterns in cover crop species effects on AM fungal abundance and diversity have not been reported, with other factors such as soil type and season being more influential 26 .…”

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confidence: 99%

Fungal community shifts in soils with varied cover crop treatments and edaphic properties

Cloutier

Murrell

Barbercheck

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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“…Including cover crops in crop rotations appears to significantly increase soil C and N pools in comparison to crop-rotations that do not contain cover crops (McDaniel et al, 2014). Rotations with annual cover crops increased fungal and AMF biomass (Maul et al, 2014), as well as the relative proportion of fungi making up the soil microbial biomass (Lehman et al, 2014), but decreased plant pathogen numbers (Benitez et al, 2016). In grasslands, a higher plant biomass was associated with increases in both fungal phylogenetic and functional group diversity (Cline et al, 2018).…”

Section: Cover Cropping Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cover cropping and no-till increase diversity and symbiotroph:saprotroph ratios of soil fungal communities

Schmidt

Mitchell

Scow

2019

Soil Biology and Biochemistry

190

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Fungi are important members of soil microbial communities in row-crop and grassland soils, provide essential ecosystem services such as nutrient cycling, organic matter decomposition, and soil structure, but fungi are also more sensitive to physical disturbance than other microorganisms. Adoption of conservation management practices such as no-till and cover cropping shape the structure and function of soil fungal communities. No-till eliminates or greatly reduces the physical disturbance that redistributes organisms and nutrients in the soil profile and disrupts fungal hyphal networks, while cover crops provide additional types and greater abundance of organic carbon sources. In a long-term, row crop field experiment in California's Central Valley we hypothesized that a more diverse and plant symbiont-enriched fungal soil community would develop in soil managed with reduced tillage practices and/or cover crops compared to standard tillage and no cover crops. We measured the interacting effects of tillage and cover cropping on fungal communities based on fungal ITS sequence assigned to ecological guilds. Functional groups within fungal communities were most sensitive to longterm tillage practices, with 45% of guild-assigned taxa responding to tillage, and a higher proportion of symbiotroph taxa under no-till. In contrast, diversity measures reflected greater sensitivity to cover crops, with higher phylogenetic diversity observed in soils managed with cover crops, though only 10% of guild-assigned taxa responded to cover crops. The relative abundance of pathotrophs did not vary across the management treatments. Cover cropping increased species diversity, while no-till shifted the symbiotroph:saprotroph ratio to favor symbiotrophs. These management-induced shifts in fungal community composition could lead to greater ecosystem resilience and provide greater access of crops to limiting resources.

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“…Experimental selection for functional rhizospheres has been conducted in the lab with model plant systems [75,76]. Cover crops are being explored as a way to boost populations of desired soil microbes, in addition to other benefits of using these crops in rotation schemes [77].…”

Section: Selecting For a Plant Microbiomementioning

confidence: 99%