Effects of conventional agricultural practices on soil fungal and bacterial communities

Abstract

The objective of this study was to compare the fungal and bacterial communities in soils under different long-term agricultural manage-ment. To achieve this goal, bulk soils from two different tillage systems (Cultivator Tillage [CT] vs Mouldboard Plough [MP]) with two fertilization levels (Standard N fertilization [INT] vs 50% less N fertiliza-tion [EXT]) were compared after harvest of winter wheat.Regarding taxonomy, 36 phyla were found for bacteria, with Proteobac-teria, Actinobacteria and Acidobacteria being most abundant. Fungal ITS se-quences were affiliated to seven differ-ent phyla, being Ascomycota and Basidi-omycota the predominant ones. Finally, management-depending responders analysis is still in process for a better un-derstanding about the complex interac-tions in this agroecosystem. Future work will aim to deepen the identification of microbial taxa that may serve as possible biological indicators for a sustainable crop production management.