Soil microbial responses to long-term agricultural practices under no-till: insights from depth-resolved sampling of shallow soil layers.
5 affiliations
- 1Grupo de Estudios Ambientales, Instituto de Matemática Aplicada San Luis (IMASL), Universidad Nacional de San Luis, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Técnicas, Científicas (CONICET), Av. Italia 1556, D5700 San Luis, Argentina.
- 2Suelo, Agua y Manejo de Cultivos, Estación Experimental Agropecuaria (EEA) Oliveros, Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA), Ruta Nacional 11 km 353, C2206 Oliveros, Santa Fe, Argentina.
- 3EEA, INTA, Marcos Juárez, Ruta 12 km 36, X2580 Marcos Juárez, Córdoba, Argentina.
- 4Laboratorio de Biomoléculas, Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas, Av. Alameda San Marcos 11, 15067 Chorrillos, Lima, Perú.
- 5CABANA Netwotark (Capacity Building for Bioinformatics in Latin America), San Pedro de Montes de Oca, 11501 San José, Costa Rica.
Abstract
Fungal and bacterial communities were characterized at three soil depths (0-3.5 cm, 3.5-7.5 cm, and 7.5-15 cm) in a 15-year no-till field experiment involving diversified crop rotations with two levels of nitrogen fertilization and soybean monoculture. We hypothesized that community patterns associated with agricultural practices would be most evident in the uppermost soil layer, and that potentially plant-pathogenic taxa would be more abundant under soybean monoculture. Bacterial community composition varied with soil depth but not among agricultural practices. In contrast, fungal community composition was associated with both soil depth and practice. The only significant pairwise difference was found between soybean monoculture and the most diversified rotation involving cover crops and high nitrogen fertilization. When practices were compared within each soil layer, differences in both bacterial and fungal composition were detected only in the uppermost layer. Here, the bacterial community was associated with extractable phosphorus and pH. Few bacterial bioindicator taxa were detected, and no potentially plant-pathogenic taxa were found under soybean monoculture. These findings highlight the importance of considering chemical gradients across soil depths when evaluating microbial responses to long-term no-till agricultural practices, as management effects may not be expressed uniformly throughout the shallow soil layers.
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BibTeX
@article{piacenza2026soil,
title = {{Soil microbial responses to long-term agricultural practices under no-till: insights from depth-resolved sampling of shallow soil layers.}},
author = {Melina Soledad Piacenza and Silvina Bacigaluppo and Mariana Maury and Fernando Salvagiotti and Frank Guzman and Esteban G Jobbágy and Valeria S Faggioli},
journal = {FEMS microbiology ecology},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.1093/femsec/fiag108},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42831893},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Soil microbial responses to long-term agricultural practices under no-till: insights from depth-resolved sampling of shallow soil layers.
AU - Melina Soledad Piacenza
AU - Silvina Bacigaluppo
AU - Mariana Maury
AU - Fernando Salvagiotti
AU - Frank Guzman
AU - Esteban G Jobbágy
AU - Valeria S Faggioli
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/01
JO - FEMS microbiology ecology
DO - 10.1093/femsec/fiag108
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42831893
AB - Fungal and bacterial communities were characterized at three soil depths (0-3.5 cm, 3.5-7.5 cm, and 7.5-15 cm) in a 15-year no-till field experiment involving diversified crop rotations with two levels of nitrogen fertilization and soybean monoculture. We hypothesized that community patterns associated with agricultural practices would be most evident in the uppermost soil layer, and that potentially plant-pathogenic taxa would be more abundant under soybean monoculture. Bacterial community composition varied with soil depth but not among agricultural practices. In contrast, fungal community composition was associated with both soil depth and practice. The only significant pairwise difference was found between soybean monoculture and the most diversified rotation involving cover crops and high nitrogen fertilization. When practices were compared within each soil layer, differences in both bacterial and fungal composition were detected only in the uppermost layer. Here, the bacterial community was associated with extractable phosphorus and pH. Few bacterial bioindicator taxa were detected, and no potentially plant-pathogenic taxa were found under soybean monoculture. These findings highlight the importance of considering chemical gradients across soil depths when evaluating microbial responses to long-term no-till agricultural practices, as management effects may not be expressed uniformly throughout the shallow soil layers.
SN - 0168-6496
SN - 1574-6941
ER -