Response of Soil Fungal Communities in Diversified Rotations of Wheat and Different Crops

Abstract

Crop-soil microorganism interactions and feedback are critical to soil health and crop production. The aim of this study was to clarify the difference in soil fungal communities under diversified rotations of wheat and different crops in the North China Plain and to provide a theoretical basis for the construction and optimization of ecological sustainable planting systems. The soil fungal community abundance, composition, and diversity of continuous winter wheat-summer maize M, winter wheat-summer peanut (summer maize) PM, and winter wheat-summer soybean (summer maize) SM treatments were studied using real-time quantitative PCR and high-throughput sequencing technology. The results showed that, compared with those of the continuous winter wheat-summer maize treatment, the peanut rotation treatment PM2 and soybean rotation treatment SM2 significantly reduced soil fungal ITS sequence copy numbers (P<0.05); there was no significant difference in soil fungal ITS sequence copy numbers between other rotation treatments and those of the control (P>0.05). Rotation treatments with peanut or soybean increased soil fungal community richness (Chao1 and ACE indices) and diversity (Shannon and InvSimson indices), in which the community richness of all rotation treatments and the community diversity of SM1/SM2 treatments varied significantly (P<0.05). The result of non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) analysis showed that the soil fungal community among different rotation crops were obviously separated. The rotation crops significantly affected soil fungal community structure (PERMANOVA:r2=0.350, P=0.001; ANOSIM:r=0.478, P=0.001). Ascomycota (73.67%-85.48%) was the dominant phylum, whereas Sordariomycetes (30.53%-48.19%) and Eurotiomycetes (11.12%-31.19%) were the dominant classes of the fungal communities of sandy-loam fluvo-aquic soil in the North China Plain. There were significantly different taxa of soil fungal communities in different rotations. Potential pathogens such as Neocosmospora, Plectosphaerella, and Gibellulopsis were significantly enriched in the rotations of winter wheat-summer peanut (summer maize), whereas potential beneficial fungi such as Penicillium and Zopfiella were significantly enriched in the rotations of winter wheat-summer soybean (summer maize). Compared with that under the continuous winter wheat-summer maize treatment, rotations with peanut or soybean increased the relative abundance of pathotroph, pathotroph-symbiotroph, and saprotroph-symbiotroph fungi and decreased the relative abundance of saprotroph fungi. The soil fungal community richness and structure were significantly related to soil organic carbon and available nutrients, and the Shannon diversity index was significantly related to soil mineral nitrogen and available phosphorus. In summary, on the basis of continuous winter wheat-summer maize rotation in the North China Plain, adding summer peanut or summer soybean instead of summer maize for rotations with different interval years could increase the richness and diversity of soil fungal communities and significantly change soil fungal community structure. In particular, summer soybean as the preceding crop had a positive effect on the enrichment of potential beneficial fungi.