Abstract
Microbial communities on soil are fundamental for the long-term sustainability of agriculture ecosystems. Microbiota in soil would impact the yield and quality of blueberries since microbial communities in soil can interact with the rhizosphere of plant. This study was conducted to determine how different mulching treatments induce changes in soil microbial composition, diversity, and functional properties. A total of 150 soil samples were collected from 5 different mulch treatments (sawdust, green weed mat, sawdust topped with green weed mat, black weed mat, and sawdust topped with black weed mat) at 3 different depths (bottom, middle, and top region of 20 cm soil depth) from 2 different months (June and July 2018). A total of 8,583,839 sequencing reads and 480 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) of bacteria were identified at genus level. Eight different plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) were detected, and the relative abundances of Bradyrhizobium, Bacillus, and Paenibacillus were more than 0.1% among all soil samples. Sampling depth and month of soil samples impacted the amount of PGPR, while there were no significant differences based on mulch type. Functional properties of bacteria were identified through PICRUSt2, which found that there is no significant difference between mulch treatment, depth, and month. The results indicated that sampling month and depth of soil impacted the relative abundance of PGPR in soil samples, but there were no significant differences of functional properties and beneficial microbial communities based on mulch type.
Highlights
Blueberries are the fruits obtained from two major blueberry species in the US market, the highbush (Vaccinium corymbosum L. and hybrids of Vaccinium corymbosum and Vaccinium darrowi) and lowbush (V. angustifolium L.) species (Wan et al 2012)
The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of different mulches, including sawdust, black or green weed mat, and sawdust covered with black or green weed mat on soil microbiome composition, functional analysis, and plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) changes, which can potentially influence on blueberry plants
The soil that surrounds the plant roots is a primary source of the bacterial agents promoting plant growth
Summary
Blueberries are the fruits obtained from two major blueberry species in the US market, the highbush (Vaccinium corymbosum L. and hybrids of Vaccinium corymbosum and Vaccinium darrowi) and lowbush (V. angustifolium L.) species (Wan et al 2012). Blueberries are a class of fruits having bioactivities which high in anthocyanins, phenolic acids, flavonoids, and flavan-3-oils. It has been reported that some bioactivities may manipulate antioxidant activity, antitumor, anti-inflammation and modulatory effects on a variety of cancer cells, acting on specific kinase-regulated. Since anthocyanins in blueberries were identified as an antioxidant in human cells, which can provide beneficial effects on human health (Bornsek et al 2012). Compared to other fruits and vegetables, a high antioxidant ability has been reported for lowbush blueberries (Conner et al 2002; Kalt et al 2000; Wang et al 2017). Highbush blueberry was shown to inhibit carbohydrate hydrolyzing enzymes such as α-amylase and α-glucosidase, which can provide positive effects for type-2 diabetes (Johnson et al 2011)
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