Relationships among Contrasting Measurements of Microbial Dynamics in Pasture and Organic Farm Soils

S L Edenborn,A J Sexstone,Y Sutanto,J A Chapman

doi:10.1155/2011/537459

S L Edenborn, A J Sexstone + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.1155/2011/537459

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Abstract

Soil bacteria exhibit short-term variations in community structure, providing an indication of anthropogenic disturbances. In this study, microbial biomass carbon (MBC), potentially mineralizable nitrogen (PMN), community level physiological profiling (CLPP), and culture-dependent DGGE (CD DGGE) fingerprinting of the 16S rRNA gene were used to compare microbial communities in organic farm and pasture soils subjected to differing agronomic treatments. Correlation analyses revealed significant relationships between MBC, PMN, and data derived from microbial community analyses. All measures separated soil types but varied in their ability to distinguish among treatments within a soil type. Overall, MBC, PMN, and CLPP were most responsive to compost and manure amendments, while CD DGGE resolved differences in legume cropping and inorganic fertilization. The results support the hypothesis that culturable soil bacteria are a responsive fraction of the total microbial community, sensitive to agronomic perturbations and amenable to further studies aimed at linking community structure with soil functions.

Highlights

Microorganisms play essential roles in organic matter decomposition, nutrient cycling, and plant productivity [1, 2]
microbial biomass carbon (MBC) was significantly higher in September than in May, and the greatest amount of MBC was found in plots that
We found that culture-dependent DGGE (CD DGGE) measured differences in soils that were amended with inorganic fertilizers and/or cropped with legumes, while MBC, potentially mineralizable nitrogen (PMN), and Communitylevel physiological profiling (CLPP) were more responsive to additions of manure and compost

Summary

Introduction

Microorganisms play essential roles in organic matter decomposition, nutrient cycling, and plant productivity [1, 2]. Parameters that integrate diverse microbial populations into a single measure, such as microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and potentially mineralizable nitrogen (PMN), historically have proven to be useful and are widely employed measures of soil quality [3, 4]. Various measures of functional and structural diversity in microbial communities have been proposed as appropriate indicators of changing soil quality [3, 6]. Communitylevel physiological profiling (CLPP) measures soil functional diversity by characterizing the relative utilization of a suite of carbon substrates. Community-level physiological profiling is a culture-based enrichment method that primarily characterizes and selects for fast-growing organisms that may be distinct from dominant bacteria in soil inocula [7, 8]; the ecological significance of CLPP data sometimes is questioned [9, 10]. Numerous studies have shown that CLPP is appropriately responsive to a wide variety of agronomic perturbations [11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18]

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