Abstract
BackgroundContinuous monocropping can affect the physicochemical and biological characteristics of cultivated soil. Sophora flavescens is a valuable herbal medicine and sensitive to continuous monocropping. Currently, diversity patterns of soil microbial communities in soil continuous monocropping with S. flavescens have not been extensively elucidated.ResultsIn this study, comparative 16S rDNA and internal transcribed spacer (ITS) MiSeq sequencing analyses were used to examine the taxonomic community structure and microbial diversity in nonrhizosphere soil (CK) and rhizosphere soils (SCC, TCC, and FCC) sampled from fields that had undergone two, three, and five years of continuous monocropping, respectively. Among the microbial communities, a decreased abundance of Acidobacteria and increased abundances of Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes were found with the increase in monocropping years of S. flavescens. As the continuous monocropping time increased, the diversity of the bacterial community decreased, but that of fungi increased. Redundancy analysis also showed that among the properties of the rhizosphere soil, the available phosphorus, organic matter, total nitrogen, and sucrase had the greatest impacts on the diversity of the rhizosphere microbial community. Moreover, a biomarker for S. flavescens soil was also identified using the most differentially abundant bacteria and fungi in soil samples.ConclusionsOur study indicates that long-term monocropping exerted great impacts on microbial community distributions and soil physicochemical properties. The relationship between microbial community and physicochemical properties of rhizosphere soil would help clarify the side effects of continuous S. flavescens monocropping. Our study may aid in uncovering the theoretical basis underlying obstacles to continuous monocropping and provide better guidance for crop production.
Highlights
Continuous monocropping can affect the physicochemical and biological characteristics of cultivated soil
All the soils were alkaline, and the Control sample (CK) soil had the highest pH value, which was significantly different from the Second-year continuous monocropping (SCC) and Third-year continuous monocropping (TCC) rhizosphere soil
The available phosphorus (AP) content was lowest in CK soil and highest in SCC rhizosphere soil
Summary
Continuous monocropping can affect the physicochemical and biological characteristics of cultivated soil. Plants can shift their soil microbial communities through the accumulation of litter and rhizodepositions in the soil under continuous monocropping conditions, thereby altering subsequent plant growth [11, 12] Other factors such as phytotoxic compounds, soil-borne pathogens, soil physicochemical property changes, and nutrient deficiency can contribute to the diversity of microbial communities [7, 13, 14]. Many plants have been reported to suffer from high mortality, declines in yield and quality, and stunting caused by continuous monocropping systems, such as notoginseng [15], soybean [16, 17], rice [18], peanut [7], and cucumber [19] For these reasons, agricultural activities should be paid more attention, especially when exploring the underlying mechanism of continuous monocropping and soil sickness
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