Abstract
Since the development of agriculture 10,000 years ago, crops and the soil they grow in have interacted and affected each other‟s existence. Soil microbial communities exert an important role in maintaining the health of soil and productivity of crops, and in turn, their population dynamics are influenced by agricultural systems. Researchers have attempted to assess community structure, as well as abundance, distribution, and function of species under different agricultural management systems. The effect of plants, soil, and agricultural management practices on the population dynamics of bacteria and fungi is reviewed, and methods to describe microbial communities are discussed.Ceylon Journal of Science (Bio. Sci.) 41 (2): 89-110, 2012 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/cjsbs.v41i2.5380
Highlights
Soil microbial communities are major drivers of various biogeochemical cycles in the soil involving the processes of soil structure formation, organic matter decomposition, toxin removal, as well as the cycling of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, iron, and sulphur
The studies discussed in this review examine the dynamic changes of bacterial and fungal communities under different cropping systems and elucidate some of the mechanisms of complex soil microbes
These results can be applied to crop breeding to reduce the use of chemical pesticides while increasing crop yields
Summary
Soil microbial communities are major drivers of various biogeochemical cycles in the soil involving the processes of soil structure formation, organic matter decomposition, toxin removal, as well as the cycling of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, iron, and sulphur. Biolog systems (Biolog GN Microplates and Ecoplates) were widely used to determine how microbial communities change in response to various factors including soil type (Miethling et al, 2000), plant species (Fang et al, 2001; Siciliano et al, 1998) and agricultural practices (Larkin, 2003; Lupwayi et al, 1998). This method is able to differentiate microbial communities at the community-level using physiological profiling, it bears some fundamental problems. The launched soil metagenomics project, TerraGenome International Sequencing Consortium, will contribute significantly to the goal of sustainable agriculture
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