Effect of no-till followed by crop diversification on the soil microbiome in a boreal short cereal rotation

Summary

This boreal field experiment examined how soil tillage practice and crop diversification influence soil microbial communities in short cereal rotations over four years (2018–2020). Conventional moldboard ploughing and no-tillage treatments were combined with either monoculture barley, undersown ryegrass cover crop, or winter rapeseed rotation. The study found that tillage had a pronounced effect on soil microbiome beta-diversity and fungal richness, but crop diversification measures (cover cropping and rotation interruption) showed only minor effects on microbial community composition, suggesting that physical disturbance from tillage practices may mask or dominate responses to diversification in boreal systems.

UK applicability

The findings are relevant to UK arable farming, particularly in cooler regions with similar cereal rotations and soil types. However, boreal conditions (shorter growing season, lower temperatures, distinct microbial communities) may differ from southern UK or lowland English cereal systems, so direct extrapolation should be cautious. The result that crop diversification alone did not substantially alter microbial communities when tillage effects were strong may warrant investigation in UK cereal contexts.

Key measures

Bacterial and fungal alpha-diversity (richness measures); beta-diversity of soil microbiome; fungal richness; bacterial community composition; fungal community composition; N-cycle gene copy abundances

Outcomes reported

The study measured changes in soil bacterial and fungal community composition, richness and diversity (alpha and beta-diversity), and gene copy abundances involved in nitrogen cycling across four years of field observation. Results compared the effects of conventional tillage versus no-tillage practices, combined with crop diversification strategies including cover crops and rotation crops.

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