Abstract
The use of perennial crop species in agricultural systems may increase ecosystem services and sustainability. Because soil microbial communities play a major role in many processes on which ecosystem services and sustainability depend, characterization of soil community structure in novel perennial crop systems is necessary to understand potential shifts in function and crop responses. Here, we characterized soil fungal community composition at two depths (0–10 and 10–30 cm) in replicated, long-term plots containing one of three different cropping systems: a tilled three-crop rotation of annual crops, a novel perennial crop monoculture (Intermediate wheatgrass, which produces the grain Kernza®), and a native prairie reconstruction. The overall fungal community was similar under the perennial monoculture and native vegetation, but both were distinct from those in annual agriculture. The mutualist and saprotrophic community subsets mirrored differences of the overall community, but pathogens were similar among cropping systems. Depth structured overall communities as well as each functional group subset. These results reinforce studies showing strong effects of tillage and sampling depth on soil community structure and suggest plant species diversity may play a weaker role. Similarities in the overall and functional fungal communities between the perennial monoculture and native vegetation suggest Kernza® cropping systems have the potential to mimic reconstructed natural systems.
Highlights
Intensive agricultural practices can have many detrimental environmental impacts and reduce important ecosystem services [1,2]
Community analysis using all OTUs revealed that the soil fungal communities were similar in cropping systems with perennial monocultures of intermediate wheatgrass and native vegetation, and both were different than the annual agriculture system (Table 2, Fig 1A)
Saprotroph and symbiotroph communities were similar in the intermediate wheatgrass and native vegetation cropping systems, and both were different than annual agriculture system (Fig 2C–2E)
Summary
Intensive agricultural practices can have many detrimental environmental impacts and reduce important ecosystem services [1,2]. To offset these effects and increase the sustainability of agricultural systems, there has been a push to better mimic natural systems, such as intact prairies and grasslands, by growing perennial crop species [3,4,5]. Long-lived crop species have the potential to improve water and soil conservation, improve overall soil health, and reduce inputs compared to conventional agriculture practices [6]. Perennial crops can alter abiotic soil properties [7,8], but much less is known about how perennial crop species impact soil microbial community structure.
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