Differential impact of fire, nitrogen fertilization, and unmanaged soils on the fungal mycobiome of rainfed maize.
6 affiliations
- 1Laboratory of Microbial Ecology and Active Principles, Center for Research, Innovation and Technology Transfer CIITT, Catholic University of Cuenca, Cuenca, Ecuador.
- 2Geoscience, Environment and Natural Resources Research Group (GARN), Cuenca, Ecuador.
- 3Agricultural and Phytosanitary Entomology Laboratory, Catholic University of Cuenca, Cuenca, Ecuador.
- 4BayCEER- Department of Hydrology, University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany.
- 5Deparment of Soil Physics, University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany.
- 6Fruit Pathology Laboratory, Department of Agricultural Production, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, University of Talca, Talca, Chile. [email protected].
Abstract
Maize (Zea mays L.) is the second most cultivated cereal worldwide, covers approximately 27% of global cereal acreage, and remains a cornerstone of global food security. Climate warming increasingly threatens its yield in rainfed systems, driving the need for agronomic and genetic adaptation strategies. In dryland maize agroecosystems, soil fungal communities regulate nutrient turnover, aggregate stability, and carbon and nitrogen cycling, yet their response to common management practices remains poorly resolved. This study examined how mycobiome diversity and composition vary across agronomic management regimes and considered the possible implications for soil functioning under water-limited conditions. Four regimes were compared: pre-planting residue burning (T1), a first urea application (T2A), a second sequential urea application (T2B), and an unmanaged dry-forest soil used as a regional reference (T3). Communities were profiled by ITS-region metabarcoding using next-generation sequencing. Across the four regimes, 503 taxa were recovered; Ascomycota dominated at 69%, whereas Glomeromycota was markedly underrepresented at 0.8-1.4%. Amplicon sequence variant (ASV) richness was highest in T2B (n = 647) and lowest in T1 (n = 433). All soils were acidic (pH < 5.6): organic matter peaked in T1 (6.8%), nitrogen and phosphorus in T2B (65.9 and 14.8 ppm, respectively), and iron was exceptionally elevated in T3 (401 ppm). PCoA and PERMANOVA analyses confirmed clear treatment-level segregation (R²=0.23, F = 3.6, p < 0.05). Heat map analysis of the 20 most abundant ASVs revealed functionally coherent clusters: T1 and T2A grouped with thermotolerant, melanized taxa such as Chaetomiaceae and Neosartorya; T2B with nitrogen-tolerant Exophiala and Talaromyces; and T3 with generalist saprotrophs such as Penicillium. Sequential urea fertilization, combined with crop developmental succession, coincided with higher observed richness but lower evenness and a reduced share of mutualistic taxa, particularly arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Pyrogenic management, by contrast, favored more specialized fungal assemblages. Although observational, these findings provide preliminary evidence linking agronomic management to soil mycobiome structure and to carbon and nitrogen cycling dynamics in dryland agroecosystems.
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BibTeX
@article{salazar2026differential,
title = {{Differential impact of fire, nitrogen fertilization, and unmanaged soils on the fungal mycobiome of rainfed maize.}},
author = {Jazmin Salazar and Juan Gonzalez and Pablo Quinteros and Silvia Parra-Suarez and Andreas Kolb and Adrián Valdez-Tenezaca},
journal = {BMC microbiology},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
doi = {10.1186/s12866-026-05488-5},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42972519},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Differential impact of fire, nitrogen fertilization, and unmanaged soils on the fungal mycobiome of rainfed maize.
AU - Jazmin Salazar
AU - Juan Gonzalez
AU - Pablo Quinteros
AU - Silvia Parra-Suarez
AU - Andreas Kolb
AU - Adrián Valdez-Tenezaca
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/03
JO - BMC microbiology
DO - 10.1186/s12866-026-05488-5
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42972519
AB - Maize (Zea mays L.) is the second most cultivated cereal worldwide, covers approximately 27% of global cereal acreage, and remains a cornerstone of global food security. Climate warming increasingly threatens its yield in rainfed systems, driving the need for agronomic and genetic adaptation strategies. In dryland maize agroecosystems, soil fungal communities regulate nutrient turnover, aggregate stability, and carbon and nitrogen cycling, yet their response to common management practices remains poorly resolved. This study examined how mycobiome diversity and composition vary across agronomic management regimes and considered the possible implications for soil functioning under water-limited conditions. Four regimes were compared: pre-planting residue burning (T1), a first urea application (T2A), a second sequential urea application (T2B), and an unmanaged dry-forest soil used as a regional reference (T3). Communities were profiled by ITS-region metabarcoding using next-generation sequencing. Across the four regimes, 503 taxa were recovered; Ascomycota dominated at 69%, whereas Glomeromycota was markedly underrepresented at 0.8-1.4%. Amplicon sequence variant (ASV) richness was highest in T2B (n = 647) and lowest in T1 (n = 433). All soils were acidic (pH < 5.6): organic matter peaked in T1 (6.8%), nitrogen and phosphorus in T2B (65.9 and 14.8 ppm, respectively), and iron was exceptionally elevated in T3 (401 ppm). PCoA and PERMANOVA analyses confirmed clear treatment-level segregation (R²=0.23, F = 3.6, p < 0.05). Heat map analysis of the 20 most abundant ASVs revealed functionally coherent clusters: T1 and T2A grouped with thermotolerant, melanized taxa such as Chaetomiaceae and Neosartorya; T2B with nitrogen-tolerant Exophiala and Talaromyces; and T3 with generalist saprotrophs such as Penicillium. Sequential urea fertilization, combined with crop developmental succession, coincided with higher observed richness but lower evenness and a reduced share of mutualistic taxa, particularly arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Pyrogenic management, by contrast, favored more specialized fungal assemblages. Although observational, these findings provide preliminary evidence linking agronomic management to soil mycobiome structure and to carbon and nitrogen cycling dynamics in dryland agroecosystems.
SN - 1471-2180
ER -