Relationships between the structure and activity of microbial communities in legume-cereal intercropping - new possibilities of old plant cultivation methods
- 1Institute of Agrophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Lublin, Poland
- 2Institute of Soil Science and Plant Cultivation – State Research Institute, Puławy, Poland
- 3Università degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Agrarie, Alimentari, Ambientali e Forestali, Florence, Italy
Intercropping has been known for a long time, but despite its many agronomic benefits, it still constitutes a small niche in agricultural cropping systems. It is known that this type of cropping systems improves biodiversity through several synergistic effects between plant species cultivated together. Legume-cereal intercropping, may also contribute to reducing expenditure on mineral fertilization, due to legume symbiosis with microbes that fix atmospheric nitrogen.
The assumption of this study is that intercropping creates more complex and lasting systems and interactions in the soil-plant-microbiome system. Therefore, they stimulate various part of communities, contributing to a more diverse community, which drives the processes of environmental changes resulting from various root exudates. Moreover, they also increase the co-occurrence of various bacteria and fungi, thus ensuring greater stability, health and quality of agroecosystems.
The research was carried out based on a large-scale field experiment conducted at the Experimental Station in Osiny (Lubelskie Voivodeship, Poland, N: 51°28, E: 22°4) established in 1994, the aim of which was a comparison of different agricultural production systems: organic, integrated and conventional high-input. The general design of the field experiment has been described by Feledyn-Szewczyk et al. (2019).
The aim of this study was to determine differences in the structure and activity of the microbiome of wheat and the soil under its cultivation in an organic, integrated and conventional cultivation systems of this plant, taking into account the complexity of plant communities occurring simultaneously in the field during the growing season. The organic system included intercropping of wheat with clovers and grasses, integrated wheat and clover, and conventional wheat cultivation with pure sowing. The research methods included spectrophotometric approach for enzymatic activity and EcoPlates functional diversity evaluation and next-generation sequencing was used for microbial structure determination of various ecological niches (soil, rhizosphere, roots and shoots).
The results may constitute an important link for a new vision of agriculture, including the use of a close connection between the soil-plant- microbiome for the development of sustainable crop production strategies and management practices for future resilient crop cultivations.
This work was supported in the frame of Horizon Europe Programme, agreement no. Project 101082289 — LEGUMINOSE
Feledyn-Szewczyk B., Matyka M., Staniak M., 2019, Comparison of the Effect of Perennial Energy Crops and Agricultural Crops on Weed Flora Diversity. Agronomy 2019, 9, 695; doi:10.3390/agronomy9110695
How to cite: Frąc, M., Siegieda, D., Gryta, A., Panek, J., Pylak, M., Mącik, M., Pertile, G., Oszust, K., Sisodia, P., Feledyn-Szewczyk, B., Pathan, S., and Pietramellara, G.: Relationships between the structure and activity of microbial communities in legume-cereal intercropping - new possibilities of old plant cultivation methods, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-21407, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-21407, 2024.
