Abstract
Soil biodiversity plays a key regulation role in the ecosystem services that underpin regenerative sustainable agriculture. It can be impacted by agricultural management techniques, both positively (through measures such as compost application) and negatively (through, for example, application of synthetic nitrogen). As one of the most numerous members of the soil biota, nematodes are well established as indicators for the soil food web. However, compost application also includes the addition of nematodes present in compost and their subsequent survival in soil is unknown. Nematode communities within the compost applied to soil, and nematode communities in the soil of a multi-year rotational cropping field trial in Melle (Belgium) were studied using morphological and metabarcoding techniques. Compost (C) and nitrogen fertilizer (NF) treated plots were compared. Three replicate plots were investigated for each of the following treatments: C application only; C and NF application; NF only; no C and no NF (control). Plots were sampled six times between 2015–2017, before and after C or NF were added each spring and after crop harvest (except for 2017). NF treatment resulted in a significant decrease of fungal feeding and predatory nematodes, while herbivorous nematodes were positively affected. Remarkably, we did not find compost addition to exert any noticeable effects on the soil nematode community. The morphological and metabarcoding data resulted in different results of the nematode community composition. However, trends and patterns in the two data sets were congruent when observed with NMDS plots and using the nematode maturity index. Metabarcoding of individual compost nematode taxa demonstrated that nematodes originating from compost did not persist in soil.
Highlights
Soil biodiversity is known to play a key role in regulating the delivery of many ecosystem goods and services, including primary production, decomposition, water purification, erosion control, biological pest control, and plant disease [1,2,3,4]
The assemblages of soil biota found in agricultural soils are known to be sensitive to management practices such as tillage, organic and inorganic amendments, pesticides and herbicides application and can be influenced by crop rotation since soil biota assemblages can be crop-specific [7,8,9,10]
One potential method of soil ecological engineering involves the use of management practices such as mulching and compost application versus synthetic nitrogen application, additives that are known to have a direct impact on soil biota
Summary
Soil biodiversity is known to play a key role in regulating the delivery of many ecosystem goods and services, including primary production, decomposition, water purification, erosion control, biological pest control, and plant disease [1,2,3,4]. A key component of soil biological health is the diversity of soil biota species within function classes performing these ecosystem services. One potential method of soil ecological engineering involves the use of management practices such as mulching and compost application versus synthetic nitrogen application, additives that are known to have a direct impact on soil biota. The biological health of agricultural soils in particular has been shown to increase crop yields through farm compost amendments [13,14]
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