Cropping practices manipulate abundance patterns of root and soil microbiome members paving the way to smart farming

Summary

This field experiment systematically examined how conventional versus organic management and tillage intensity shape soil bacterial, soil fungal, and root microbial communities in wheat. Whilst microbial richness was largely unaffected, community composition responded distinctly by microbiome type: soil bacteria were primarily structured by tillage, soil fungi by management type, and root bacteria by management type. The authors identified taxonomically diverse, cropping-sensitive microbes that co-occur in guilds and often occupy influential positions in the broader community, suggesting that targeted agricultural practices could enable manipulation of key microbial community members for agricultural benefit.

UK applicability

The findings are directly relevant to UK arable farming, as wheat is a major UK crop and both conventional and organic systems are widely practised. The study's identification of how specific management and tillage practices alter microbiome composition provides a framework for UK farmers and agronomists to consider microbiota management in crop production, though site-specific validation would be needed given differences in climate, soil type, and regional farming infrastructure.

Key measures

Microbial richness and community composition (16S rRNA and ITS sequencing); proportion of variation in microbial communities explained by cropping practices; identification of cropping-sensitive taxa and their co-occurrence patterns

Outcomes reported

The study characterised soil and wheat root microbial communities across conventional and organic management systems with varying tillage intensities, quantifying how cropping practices structure bacterial and fungal community composition. It identified cropping-sensitive microbes that respond in taxonomic guilds to specific agricultural practices and estimated that approximately 10% of microbial community variation was explained by the tested practices.

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