Tillage and crop residue incorporation effects on soil bacterial diversity in the double-cropping paddy field of southern China

Abstract

ABSTRACT There is still limited information about the influence of different tillage and crop residue management on soil bacterial communities in the paddy field. Therefore, the short-term effects of tillage and incorporated crop residue management on soil properties and bacterial communities in a double-cropping rice system of southern China were studied. The experiment included four tillage treatments: conventional tillage with crop residue incorporation (CT), rotary tillage with crop residue incorporation (RT), no-tillage with crop residue retention (NT), and rotary tillage without crop residue as control (RTO). The results indicated that soil invertase, urease and catalase activities with CT treatment were increased 11.5%, 82.6% and 43.9%, compared with RTO treatment. Meanwhile, the results showed that genetic diversity indices of soil microbial communities increased by application of crop residue treatments, compared to without crop residue treatment. The value of Richness indices and McIntosh indices with CT treatment were increased by 10.8% and 35.4%, compared with RTO treatment. CT and RT treatments increase the abundance of phylum Alphaproteobacteria, Firmicutes and Gammaproteobacteria, compared to RTO treatment. Therefore, the combined application of tillage and crop residue management could significantly increase the abundance of profitable functional bacteria species in the double-cropping paddy field of southern China.