Conventional Tea Research Articles

The impact of agricultural land use on the linkages between soil microbial communities and agroecosystem functioning is depth-dependent

Soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) mineralization rates are critical indicators of ecosystem functioning in agricultural land. However, the effects of agricultural land use on the interactions between soil C and N mineralization at different soil depths, especially in tropical regions, are poorly understood. Here, a longan orchard (LO) was converted to a conventional tea plantation (CTP) and an organic tea plantation (OTP) in the tropical region of China, and the responses of fungal and bacterial communities to these changes were assessed. The characteristics of the microbial communities, enzyme activities, and N and C mineralization rates were evaluated in response to the changes in land use. It was found that LO and OTP had faster N and C mineralization rates than CTP in surface soil. However, in subsurface soil, LO and OTP showed a faster C mineralization rate and a slower N mineralization rate than CTP. Structural equation modeling revealed that pH and C/N were the most crucial factors affecting N and C mineralization rates in surface soil. In contrast,soil bacterial and fungal community structures were the principal drivers of both the C and N mineralization in subsurface soil. Although soil C and net N mineralization were positively correlated in surface soil, this was not seen in subsurface soil. Collectively, this study demonstrated that differential drivers and their effects on the interactions between soil C and N mineralization at different soil depths should be considered for more accurate prediction of soil C and N dynamics under land-use changes.

Exploring the ancient roots and modern global brews of tea and herbal beverages: A comprehensive review of origins, types, health benefits, market dynamics, and future trends.

Tea, a culturally significant beverage, originated around 2700 B.C. in ancient Chinese civilization, with a profound understanding of its therapeutic properties. Herbal medicines from diverse plant sources have been esteemed for their phytochemical content. Today, tea's appeal spans the globe, with various processing techniques creating distinct tea varieties. This review article comprehensively explores tea and herbal teas, encompassing their origins, types, trade history, health benefits, chemical composition, and market and future dynamics. This review examines tea's evolution from ancient China to its global significance and analyzes the impact of tea trade routes on cultural exchanges and trade dynamics. The review covers conventional teas (black, green, and oolong), blended teas, and herbal teas. It primarily focuses on herbal beverages' chemical composition and active components derived from diverse plants and botanicals, highlighting their traditional uses and health-promoting applications. The review provides valuable insights into the dynamic herbal tea market, growth, consumer preferences, industry trends, and future aspects of the herbal beverage. Additionally, it explores the proper classification and preparation of herbal drinks for maximum benefits, shedding light on tea manufacturing and preparation processes. This review is a valuable resource for tea enthusiasts, health-conscious individuals, and industry stakeholders, offering profound insights into teas and their multifaceted allure.

Decades-long organic tea production is distinguished by N deficiency: Evidence from soil and tea δ15N data

To investigate the possibility of identifying commercial organic teas from conventional teas based on their isotopic signatures, we sampled tea leaves and soil samples from three tea gardens in Pu'er, China, that underwent decades of certified organic cultivation and compared them with adjacent conventional gardens. We found that long-term organic tea cultivation increased the soil organic carbon and soil pH but significantly decreased the total N content of tea. Higher δ15N values were observed in the organic teas, but significant overlap existed with non-organic teas. The lower N content of the organic tea and contrasting pattern between the organic tea δ15N and soil δ15N suggested that the decline of the N availability could potentially act as a robust characteristic for discriminating between organic and non-organic tea cultivation systems. Further analysis implies that combining tea and soil N content with δ15N value is a promising approach to organic tea identification.

Possibility of Ceylon Tea Waste Conversion to Biochar – a short review

A few countries fulfil global tea demand, and Sri Lanka, formerly known as Ceylon, is one of the top tea exporters. Tea is Sri Lanka's largest agricultural export, with an annual production of approximately 340 million kg. Consequently, the tea industry generates significant quantities of tea waste. Unfortunately, the Sri Lankan tea industry often ignores proper tea waste management, relying on open dumping and burning, which can harm the environment despite the biodegradable nature of the waste. Among a number of modern waste management methods, pyrolysis is gaining increasing attention as a sustainable waste treatment method as it transforms waste into carbonaceous materials, biofuel and syngas, leaving no waste behind at comparatively lower temperatures (400-600℃). Considering the nature of the Ceylon tea industry, which mainly uses conventional tea production processes, this short review article mainly focused on the effect of tea pyrolysis temperature, derived biochar activation methods, and their uses. Biochar derived from tea waste has demonstrated remarkable utility in various fields. By converting waste into stable carbonaceous materials, it not only mitigates local emissions but also serves as a reliable long-term carbon storage. Moreover, biochar and activated carbon derived from tea waste has proven efficient and cost-effective for removing water, soil, and air contaminants. Industry can obtain financial benefits by introducing derived activated carbon as an adsorbent. These facts highlight the suitability of adopting low-temperature pyrolysis of tea waste and biochar production to the Ceylon tea industry using simple techniques such as double-barrel systems that can be operated with the excess heat produced in boilers.

Diversity and Advantages of Culturable Endophytic Fungi from Tea (Camellia sinensis).

Sordariomycetes, Dothideomycetes, and Eurotioycetes are three classes of endophytes that colocalize with tea (Camellia sinensis). Overall, the diversity indexes in this study indicated a greater abundance of fungal endophytes in roots and stems. Taking the production system into account, conventional tea plantations exhibit lower diversity compared to organic tea plantations. Notably, the influence of agrochemicals had the largest impact on the fungal endophyte communities within roots and young leaves. Despite the limited fungal diversity in conventional plantations, three fungal endophytes were isolated from tea in this culture system: Diaporthe sp., YI-005; Diaporthe sp., SI-007; and Eurotium sp., RI-008. These isolated endophytes exhibited high antagonistic activity (93.00-97.00% inhibition of hypha growth) against Stagonosporopsis cucurbitacearum, the causal agent of gummy stem blight disease. On the other hand, endophytic fungi isolated from tea in an organic system-Pleosporales sp., SO-006 and Pleosporales sp., RO-013-established the ability to produce indole-3-acetic acid (IAA; 0.65 ± 0.06 µg/mL) and assist the solubilizing phosphorus (5.17 ± 1.03 µg/mL) from the soil, respectively. This suggested that the level of diversity, whether at the tissue level or within the farming system, did not directly correlate with the discovery of beneficial fungi. More importantly, these beneficial fungi showed the potential to develop into biological agents to control the devastating diseases in the cucurbit family and the potential for use as biofertilizers with a wide range of applications in plants. Therefore, it can be concluded that there are no restrictions limiting the use of fungal endophytes solely to the plant host from which they were originally isolated.

Different management strategies exert distinct influences on microclimate of soil and canopy in tea fields through surface-atmosphere interactions

Agricultural management strategies are crucial in regulating the soil-atmosphere interaction. The crop landscape is influenced by farmers through different field practices, and further impacts the variations of soil temperature, soil moisture, and field microclimate. To examine how different management strategies affect the dynamics of canopy and soil parameters (canopy temperature, soil temperature and soil moisture) and the aforementioned interaction, two observation systems were installed in an organic-certified (ORG) tea field and a conventional (CONV) tea field in northern Taiwan. Due to the application of different field practices, the leaf area in ORG is higher. The results show that the diurnal range of canopy temperature in CONV was larger than that in ORG (7.52 °C vs 5.97 °C). However, the daily loss rate of soil water content in ORG was two times faster than that in CONV (0.97% d−1 vs. 0.45% d−1). The outcomes imply that the organic practices in this study lead to higher evapotranspiration and milder variation in temperature on the canopy scale. These findings suggest that the application of organic practice could help to mitigate the changes of microclimate in tea field. In addition, the adoption of appropriate management strategies could assist farmers in adapting to environmental fluctuations and provide quantitative references of microclimate in tea field under different agricultural applications and climatic conditions.

Snapshot of a crisis: food security and dietary diversity levels among disrupted conventional and long‐term organic tea‐smallholders in Sri Lanka

In Sri Lanka, conventional and organic smallholder producers grow seventy percent of the country's tea, bring in significant export earnings, and are differentially exposed to input supply shocks. While tea production may be advantageous for the nation's economy, it is less clear whether it is good for the food security of those smallholders involved. This study examines how economic status (income and wealth) and method of tea farming (organic or conventional) influences food security and dietary diversity outcomes in the midst of a fertiliser supply shock. We used data collected in the summer of 2021, a time when an inorganic fertiliser ban went into effect, from 47 organic and 67 conventional tea smallholders in five rural communities in southern and central Sri Lanka. Our findings show that long‐term organic farmers had higher dietary diversity measures than the conventional tea smallholders who were unevenly disrupted by the aforementioned fertiliser ban. The haphazard ban on conventional fertilizer adversely impacted dietary outcomes of conventional farmers. We also discuss how the transition to organic farming would have worked better with more time and planning.

Changes in soil organic carbon and nitrogen stocks in organic farming practice and abandoned tea plantation

BackgroundThe restoration of conventional tea plantations and the adoption of organic farming practices could impact soil organic carbon (SOC) and nitrogen (N) stocks. This study investigated the soil properties, SOC and N contents and stocks, and their vertical distributions of a secondary forest restored from an abandoned conventional tea plantation and a converted organic tea plantation. An adjacent conventional tea plantation employing similar intermediate farming served as a comparison.ResultsWithin a 50-cm depth, the secondary forest exhibited a higher SOC stock of 115.53 ± 7.23 Mg C ha− 1 compared to 92.1 ± 8.54 Mg C ha− 1 for the conventional tea plantation. No significant differences in N stocks were seen between the two land uses. Significantly high SOC and N contents and stocks were found in the 0–10 cm layer of the secondary forest compared to the conventional tea plantation. No significant disparities in SOC and N stocks were found between the conventional and organic tea plantations within the 50 cm depth (92.1 ± 8.54 Mg C ha− 1 and 10.06 ± 1.01 Mg N ha− 1 vs. 97.47 ± 1.53 Mg C ha− 1 and 9.70 ± 0.10 Mg N ha− 1). However, higher levels of SOC and N contents and stocks were observed at a depth of 10 cm in the conventional tea plantation and below 10 cm in the organic tea plantation.ConclusionsThe C and N inputs derived from high litter production at the top soil strongly contributed to higher SOC and N contents and stocks in the secondary forest. The application of soybean amendments in the conventional tea plantation and the longer tea plantation age of the organic tea plantation influenced their distribution of SOC and N contents and stocks, respectively. Reverting a conventional tea plantation into a secondary forest contributed to C recovery and reaccumulation. The conventional tea plantation, employing similar intermediate farming practices, increased SOC and N contents and stocks in the surface soil compared to the organic tea plantation. However, adopting organic farming did not significantly increase SOC stocks compared to the conventional tea plantation.

Therapeutic value of organic and conventional teas in Sri Lanka against microbial agents

Due to its naturally occurring medicinal ingredients known as polyphenols, tea attracts the interest of the pharmaceutical and scientific disciplines. Besides the established antioxidant activity, many phenolic compounds in tea exhibit significant antimicrobial activity. Environmental factors and crop management substantially influence the amount and activity of polyphenols available in tea leaves. In Sri Lanka, there are six main agro-ecological regions where tea is grown using either conventional or organic management. Present study focused to determine the effects of tea production system and their growing region on polyphenol content and antimicrobial properties of made tea. Fresh leaf samples were collected from randomly selected tea estates each for organically certified and conventional from major tea growing regions in Sri Lanka. They were manufactured into CTC black tea using a miniature system. Polyphenol content was assessed by ISO standard method, while the anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties were evaluated using disk diffusion technique against Escherichia coli ATCC 25922 and clinical pathogen of Aspergillus niger. Polyphenol content, anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties were significantly different (P<0.05) between the tea production systems and among the growing regions, where organic tea had higher polyphenol content, anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties than conventional teas. The Southern region tea had greater anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties probably due to the high polyphenol content, while it was the lowest in Uva region. In conclusion, this research presents preliminary evidence that Sri Lankan teas grown and managed organically have superior antimicrobial properties over conventional teas. To confirm the findings, more investigation using time series measurement in all tea-growing regions is suggested.

Organic conversion tea farms can have comparable economic benefits and less environmental impacts than conventional ones—A case study in China

Lack of experience concerning the organic conversion period and its associated challenges have made it difficult for conventional farmers to convert to organic farming. In this study, using a combined life cycle assessment (LCA) with data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach, we investigated farming management strategies, and environmental, economic, and efficiency impacts of organic conversion tea farms (OCTF, N = 15) compared to conventional (CTF, N = 13) and organic (OTF, N = 14) tea farms in Wuyi County, China for a year-round (2019). We found that the OCTF reduced agricultural inputs (environmental impacts) and applied more manual harvesting (increased added value) to pull through the conversion period. According to the LCA results, OCTF showed a similar integrated environmental impact index compared with OTF but significantly (P < 0.05) lower than CTF at both midpoint and endpoint levels. In terms of economic assessment, OTF showed the significantly highest total revenue (18.7 thousand $ ha−1 yr−1) and profit (13.7 thousand $ ha−1 yr−1) (P < 0.05) among the farm types. In contrast, OCTF and CTF did not show significant differences in relation to these economic indicators (P > 0.05). The total cost and cost-profit ratio did not show significant differences among the three farm types. Considering the DEA analysis, there were no significant differences in the technical efficiency of all farm types. However, the eco-efficiency of OCTF and OTF was significantly higher than that of CTF. Therefore, conventional tea farms can survive the conversion period with competitive economic and environmental benefits. In this regard, policies should promote organic tea cultivation and agroecological practices to enhance the sustainable transformation of tea production systems.

Health risks posed by microplastics in tea bags: microplastic pollution - a truly global problem.

Health risks posed by microplastics in tea bags: microplastic pollution - a truly global problem.

Special tea products featuring functional components: Health benefits and processing strategies.

The functional components in tea confer various potential health benefits to humans. To date, several special tea products featuring functional components (STPFCs) have been successfully developed, such as O-methylated catechin-rich tea, γ-aminobutyric acid-rich tea, low-caffeine tea, and selenium-rich tea products. STPFCs have some unique and enhanced health benefits when compared with conventional tea products, which can meet the specific needs and preferences of different groups and have huge market potential. The processing strategies to improve the health benefits of tea products by regulating the functional component content have been an active area of research in food science. The fresh leaves of some specific tea varieties rich in functional components are used as raw materials, and special processing technologies are employed to prepare STPFCs. Huge progress has been achieved in the research and development of these STPFCs. However, the current status of these STPFCs has not yet been systematically reviewed. Here, studies on STPFCs have been comprehensively reviewed with a focus on their potential health benefits and processing strategies. Additionally, other chemical components with the potential to be developed into special teas and the application of tea functional components in the food industry have been discussed. Finally, suggestions on the promises and challenges for the future study of these STPFCs have been provided. This paper might shed light on the current status of the research and development of these STPFCs. Future studies on STPFCs should focus on screening specific tea varieties, identifying new functional components, evaluating health-promoting effects, improving flavor quality, and elucidating the interactions between functional components.

Sustainable green tea production through agroecological management and land conversion practices for restoring soil health, crop productivity and economic efficiency: Evidence from Northern Vietnam

AbstractTea is a very important cash crop in Vietnam as it provides crucial income and employment for farmers in poor rural areas. Unfortunately, the dominance of long‐term, conventional tea cultivation has caused severe soil health degradation and environmental pollution. At the same time, as tea production may provide a better net income compared with other annual crops such as rice and vegetables, farmers have been converting parts of their allocated land to cultivate tea plants. Little is known about the benefit of agroecological management as an alternative to conventional tea management practices, and thus, there is a need to understand how it can improve tea yields, quality and the livelihoods of the farmers. Conducted in Northern Vietnam from 2019 to 2022, this study examined the impacts of agroecological tea management practices on soil health indicators, tea yield and quality, and net income of tea farmers. We showed that agroecological management practices significantly enhanced soil organic matter by 0.8% and soil pH by 0.5 units on average. Conversely, conventional management based on chemical fertilizer applications, significantly increased soil total nitrogen by 0.15%–0.2%. No significant differences were observed between soil texture and other soil chemical characteristics. Soil biological parameters were also significantly higher in agroecological tea soil and root samples than in conventional tea plots. Average AMF frequency and intensity of the agroecological tea roots were 98% and 37%, respectively, compared with 73% and 15% of the conventional tea roots. Likewise, soil macrofauna and mesofauna abundance in the agroecological tea plantations was 76 individuals/m2and 101 individuals/100 g fresh soil on average, respectively, while that of conventional tea farms were 34 and 63 individuals/100 g fresh soil, respectively. Interestingly, a comparison between the converted and nonconverted lands did not show any significant effect of the conversion on soil physicochemical and biological characteristics, apart from tea root AMF colonization. Conventional tea management consistently resulted in higher tea yield and yield components, even though the differences were not always statistically significant. Despite lower tea yields, agroecological tea adopters earned around USD 8400 ha/year more than the farmers still practicing conventional management. This study shows that it is economically and environmentally more sustainable to produce organic tea than conventional tea, and our results should encourage more farmers to adopt such agroecological practices in Northern Vietnam.

Response of the Soil Fungal Community and Its Function during the Conversion of Forestland to Tea Plantations: A Case Study in Southeast China

Land-use change is one of the most important driving factors of change in soil microbial diversity. Deforestation for tea plantations has transformed large areas of forestland in hilly areas of Southeast China. However, its impact on the soil fungal community structures and functions is still understudied. We compared the soil fungal communities and their functions in forestland (FD), a 3-year-old tea plantation (ZC3) and a 30-year-old tea plantation (ZC30) at 0–20 cm and 20–40 cm soil depths. The soil fungal community compositions and potential functions were analyzed using high-throughput sequencing techniques coupled with FUNGuild analysis. The results showed that the initial conversion from forestland to tea plantations significantly decreased soil fungal diversity. With an increase in the tea plantation age, the soil fungal diversity rebounded. The dominant phyla included Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, unclassified_k_fungi and Mortierellomycota, which were identified in all soil samples and accounted for 90% of all fungal communities. Non-metric multidimensional scaling analysis (NMDS) indicated that the soil fungal community was more responsive to the duration of tea planting than to the soil depth. FUNGuild analysis showed that the relative abundance of pathogenic and pathotrophic-saprotrophic fungi was higher while saprotrophs were lower in ZC30 compared with FD. Among the analyzed soil properties, soil available nitrogen, available phosphorus, available potassium and bulk density were the prime factors affecting the abundance and diversity of soil fungal community compositions. Network analysis showed that fungal microbial taxa increased positive interactions to enhance the adaptability of fungal microorganisms to long-term tea planting. Collectively, our results provide a clear view on the dynamic yet differential responses of fungal communities to land-use changes, and further emphasizes the need for long-term conventional tea plantations to adopt sustainable agricultural practices to reduce soil pathogenic fungi.

True eddy accumulation – Part 2: Theory and experiment of the short-time eddy accumulation method

Abstract. A new variant of the eddy accumulation method for measuring atmospheric exchange is derived, and a prototype sampler is evaluated. The new method, termed short-time eddy accumulation (STEA), overcomes the requirement of fixed accumulation intervals in the true eddy accumulation method (TEA) and enables the sampling system to run in a continuous flow-through mode. STEA enables adaptive time-varying accumulation intervals, which improves the system's dynamic range and brings many advantages to flux measurement and calculation. The STEA method was successfully implemented and deployed to measure CO2 fluxes over an agricultural field in Braunschweig, Germany. The measured fluxes matched very well against a conventional eddy covariance system (slope of 1.04, R2 of 0.86). We provide a detailed description of the setup and operation of the STEA system in the continuous flow-through mode, devise an empirical correction for the effect of buffer volumes, and describe the important considerations for the successful operation of the STEA method. The STEA method reduces the bias and uncertainty in the measured fluxes compared to conventional TEA and creates new ways to design eddy accumulation systems with finer control over sampling and accumulation. The results encourage the application of STEA for measuring fluxes of more challenging atmospheric constituents such as reactive species. This paper is Part 2 of a two-part series on true eddy accumulation.

Functional traits and phylogenetic analysis of top-soil inhabiting rhizobacteria associated with tea rhizospheres in North Bengal, India

Rhizobacteria associated with cultivated crops are known to stimulate plant growth through various indirect or direct mechanisms. In recent years, the host list of plant growth promotion/promoting rhizobacteria has expanded to include bean, barley, cotton, maize, rice, vegetables, peanut, rice, wheat, and several plantation crops. However, interaction of rhizobacteria with tea plants of organic and conventional tea gardens is poorly understood. In the present study, rhizobacterial species associated with tea rhizosphere were isolated from 14 tea gardens located in North Bengal, India. In total, 16 rhizobacterial isolates isolated from collected soil samples were assessed for antagonistic and plant growth promotion/promoting activity under laboratory conditions. Molecular characterization based on sequencing of 16S rRNA gene revealed dominance of Bacillus with five species followed by Pseudomonas with two species. Interestingly, only one isolate was affiliated with actinobacteria, i.e., Microbacterium barkeri. Out of 16 isolates, isolates Bacillus subtilis OKAKP01, B. subtilis BNLG01, B. paramycoides BOK01, M. barkeri BPATH02, and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia BSEY01 showed highest growth inhibition against Fusarium solani (68.2 to 72.8%), Pseudopestalotiopsis theae (71.1 to 85.6%), and Exobasidium vexans (67.4 to 78.3%) causing respective Fusarium dieback, gray blight, and blister blight diseases in tea crop. Further, these five isolates also possessed significantly greater antifungal (siderophore producer, protease, chitinase, and cellulase activity) and plant growth promotion/promoting (indole-3-acetic acid production, ACC deaminase, ammonia, and phosphate solubilization) traits over other eleven rhizobacterial isolates. Therefore, these five isolates of rhizobacteria were chosen for their plant growth promotion/promoting activity on tea plants in nursery conditions. Results from nursery experiments revealed that these five rhizobacteria significantly improved growth rates of tea plants compared with the control. Therefore, this study suggests that these rhizobacteria could be used to formulate biopesticides and biofertilizers, which could be applied to sustainable tea cultivation to improve crop health and reduce disease attack.

Coffee Leaf Tea from El Salvador: On-Site Production Considering Influences of Processing on Chemical Composition.

The production of coffee leaf tea (Coffea arabica) in El Salvador and the influences of processing steps on non-volatile compounds and volatile aroma-active compounds were investigated. The tea was produced according to the process steps of conventional tea (Camellia sinensis) with the available possibilities on the farm. Influencing factors were the leaf type (old, young, yellow, shoots), processing (blending, cutting, rolling, freezing, steaming), drying (sun drying, oven drying, roasting) and fermentation (wild, yeast, Lactobacillus). Subsequently, the samples were analysed for the maximum levels of caffeine, chlorogenic acid, and epigallocatechin gallate permitted by the European Commission. The caffeine content ranged between 0.37–1.33 g/100 g dry mass (DM), the chlorogenic acid was between not detectable and 9.35 g/100 g DM and epigallocatechin gallate could not be detected at all. Furthermore, water content, essential oil, ash content, total polyphenols, total catechins, organic acids, and trigonelline were determined. Gas chromatography—mass spectrometry—olfactometry and calculation of the odour activity values (OAVs) were carried out to determine the main aroma-active compounds, which are β-ionone (honey-like, OAV 132-927), decanal (citrus-like, floral, OAV 14-301), α-ionone (floral, OAV 30-100), (E,Z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber-like, OAV 18-256), 2,4-nonadienal (melon-like, OAV 2-18), octanal (fruity, OAV 7-23), (E)-2 nonenal (citrus-like, OAV 1-11), hexanal (grassy, OAV 1-10), and 4-heptenal (green, OAV 1-9). The data obtained in this study may help to adjust process parameters directly to consumer preferences and allow coffee farmers to earn an extra income from this by-product.

Land-use changes alter the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal community composition and assembly in the ancient tea forest reserve

Understanding the effects of land-use changes on arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal (AMF) communities may greatly benefit ecosystem conservation and restoration. However, how AMF communities respond to anthropogenetic land-use change (e.g., from natural ecosystems to farmland ecosystems) is still under debate. To enhance the preservation of vegetation diversity in ancient tea forest (ATF) regions and understand how land-use changes influence the AMF community in acidic soils, the AMF community composition and assembly processes in the ATF region (soil pH: 3.5–4.2) were investigated. Our results showed that AMF α-diversity indices in ATF were significantly higher than those in conventional tea plantations (CTP) and Forest. Moreover, number of indicator species (as virtual taxa, VTX) showed a remarkable decrease when ATF (12 VTXs) changed to Forest (8 VTXs) and CTP (3 VTXs). In addition, neutral processes dominated the AMF community assembly, and Acaulospora was the dominant genus of AMF indicator species in ATF. Moreover, land-use changes eliminated the neutral process of AMF community assembly in CTP and Forest by enhancing the environmental filtering effects. The concentrations of soil nitrate, TK, Mg2+, and Cu2+ were important factors accounting for the AMF community change. In addition, we found that high acidity soils may exert an ecological selection on the AMF community, as only species that adapt to strongly acidic soils persisted. Overall, our results indicated that mitigating soil acidification has potential as a method of improving the AMF community diversity and conserving and restoring ATF ecosystems in southwest China.

Application of Microbial Biofilms to Reinstate Lost Soil Microbial Diversity under Global Warming: A Case Study

By the end of the 21st century, global surface temperatures expected to rise by ca. 1.8-3.6° C due to accumulation of CO2 in the atmosphere at higher rates. Excessive use of chemical inputs in modern agriculture is one of the major contributors, because it leads to degrade soil microbial diversity that causes soil carbon loss, and emit C to the atmosphere as CO2. In this context, microbial ameliorators like Biofilm Biofertilizers are studied to reinstate biodiversity, functioning, and sustainability of agroecosystems. The Biofilm Biofertilizers consist of microbes and their exudates having diverse biochemicals; once applied to soil, they break the dormancy of cysts, spores, akinetes, and conidia which reinstate biodiversity while cut short soil restoration in degraded croplands. In the present study, investigated the effect of a Biofilm Biofertilizers having one fungus and two bacteria on microbial diversity in the soils under conventional tea cultivation by refitting to the temperature increase. The soils separately treated with the BFBF and sterilized distilled water in small pots in a plant house under three different temperatures viz. 30° C, 36° C, and 40° C. After one month, the soil samples were collected separately and analyzed for fungal colony, and bacterial colony counts, fungal: bacterial ratio, fungal species richness, and bacterial species richness. The results showed that the application of Biofilm Biofertilizers significantly increased (p&lt;0.05) culturable bacteria, fungi, and their species richness at 40° C over 30° C and 36° C. Therefore, the results conclude that the Biofilm Biofertilizers as a novel biotechnological method to restore degraded agricultural soils in the context of global warming.&#x0D; Keywords: Biofilm biofertilizers, Fungal:bacterial ratio, Soil biodiversity

Weed vegetation in organic and conventional tea fields in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan

Weed vegetation in organic and conventional tea fields in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan