Contribution of Good Agricultural Practices to Soil Biodiversity

At present time when climate change has negative effect on soil moisture and can decrease significantly the productivity, good agricultural practises have a high importance via their direct influence on soil properties, regimes and biodiversity. Objectives of this study have been focused on the assessment of good agricultural practises in different soil cultivation types: conventional, minimum till, mulch, no-till and organic farming. Method used was based on two case study areas where organic and/or minimal farming systems have been applied. As a control, we chose soil with traditional cultivation. In organic farm, we evaluated earthworms;their amount and status and in farm with different types of cultivation we evaluated the microbial activity to assess the biodiversity conditions. Basic soil properties and soil structure have been set to be able to assess the influence of good agricultural practises on soil environment. Our study shows positive effect of these practises on soil moisture content, biodiversity and soil structure stability. These findings can be used for further studies determining the ways of soil cultivation in harmony with nature—in sustainable way.

Effects of Soil Biodiversity on Plant Health:A Review

Soil is the most biologically abundant ecosystem on the earth.Soil biodiversity has significant impact on maintaining soil ecological balance and agricultural production,especially on healthy growth and disease control of plants.Therefore,it is of great significance to study soil biodiversity.This paper reviewed the role of soil biodiversity in plant growth.First of all,the history of soil biodiversity was introduced.Secondly,the composition of soil biodiversity was introduced,and the role of soil biodiversity in regulating the quantity and species of soil organisms,maintaining the balance and stability of soil system,participating in nutrient circulation and energy flow,and promoting plant health were discussed based on the interactions among microbial diversity,fauna diversity and plant diversity.Finally,combined with the background of advocating the protection of soil biodiversity in the great time,the potential factors threatening soil biodiversity were analyzed.

Bacterial diversity and community composition changes in paddy soils that have different parent materials and fertility levels

Parent materials and the fertility levels of paddy soils are highly variable in subtropical China.Bacterial diversity and community composition play pivotal roles in soil ecosystem processes and functions.However,the effects of parent material and fertility on bacterial diversity and community composition in paddy soils are unclear.The key soil factors driving the changes in bacterial diversity,community composition,and the specific bacterial species in soils that are derived from different parent materials and have differing fertility levels are unknown.Soil samples were collected from paddy fields in two areas with different parent materials(quaternary red clay or tertiary sandstone)and two levels of fertility(high or low).The variations in bacterial diversity indices and communities were evaluated by 454 pyrosequencing which targeted the V4–V5 region of the 16S rRNA gene.The effects of parent material and fertility on bacterial diversity and community composition were clarified by a two-way ANOVA and a two-way PERMANOVA.A principal coordinate analysis(PCoA),a redundancy analysis(RDA),and multivariate regression trees(MRT)were used to assess changes in the studied variables and identify the factors affecting bacterial community composition.Co-occurrence network analysis was performed to find correlations between bacterial genera and specific soil properties,and a statistical analysis of metagenomic profiles(STAMP)was used to determine bacterial genus abundance differences between the soil samples.The contributions made by parent material and soil fertility to changes in the bacterial diversity indices were comparable,but soil fertility accounted for a larger part of the shift in bacterial community composition than the parent material.Soil properties,especially soil texture,were strongly associated with bacterial diversity.The RDA showed that soil organic carbon(SOC)was the primary factor influencing bacterial community composition.A key threshold for SOC(25.5 g kg^(–1))separated low fertility soils from high fertility soils.The network analysis implied that bacterial interactions tended towards cooperation and that copiotrophic bacteria became dominant when the soil environment improved.The STAMP revealed that copiotrophic bacteria,such as Massilia and Rhodanobacter,were more abundant in the high fertility soils,while oligotrophic bacteria,such as Anaerolinea,were dominant in low fertility soils.The results showed that soil texture played a role in bacterial diversity,but nutrients,especially SOC,shaped bacterial community composition in paddy soils with different parent materials and fertility levels.

Soil and Vegetation Seasonal Changes in the Grazing Andean Mountain Grasslands

Andean grasslands ecosystems are fragile environments with rigorous climatologic conditions and low and variable food for the grazing. The Apolobamba area is located in the Bolivian Andean Mountains. Its high grasslands provide a natural habitat for wild and domestic camelids such as vicuna(Vicugna vicugna) and alpaca(Lama pacos). The botanical diversity plays an essential role in maintaining vital ecosystem functions. The objectives of this research were to determine the seasonal changes in soil properties, to study the vegetation changes during the wet and dry seasons and the influence of soil properties and camelid densities on the vegetation in the Apolobamba grasslands. Four zones with different vicuna populations were selected to be studied. The following soil parameters were determined: total organic carbon, total nitrogen, available phosphorous, cation exchange capacity, exchangeable cations, pH and texture. The vegetation season changes were studied through botanical identification, above-ground biomass, plant cover and species richness. Results showed that some soil properties such as C/N ratio, CEC, silt and clay percentages kept stable against the seasonal changes. Generally, soil nutrients were relatively higher during the dry season in the surface and subsurface. The results did not point out the predominant vegetation growth during the wet season. The seasonal vegetation growth depended on each species. Thegood soil fertility corresponded to the highest plant cover. Soil fertility presented no influence on the above-ground biomass of the collected species. The negative influence of camelid grazing on soil properties could not be assessed. However, overgrazing could affect some plant species. Therefore, protection is needed in order to preserve the biodiversity in the Andean mountain grasslands.

Green manuring relocates microbiomes in driving the soil functionality of nitrogen cycling to obtain preferable grain yields in thirty years

Fertilizers are widely used to produce more food, inevitably altering the diversity and composition of soil organisms. The role of soil biodiversity in controlling multiple ecosystem services remains unclear, especially after decades of fertilization. Here, we assess the contribution of the soil functionalities of carbon(C), nitrogen(N), and phosphorus(P) cycling to crop production and explore how soil organisms control these functionalities in a 33-year field fertilization experiment. The long-term application of green manure or cow manure produced wheat yields equivalent to those obtained with chemical N, with the former providing higher soil functions and allowing the functionality of N cycling(especially soil N mineralization and biological N fixation) to control wheat production. The keystone phylotypes within the global network rather than the overall microbial community dominated the soil multifunctionality and functionality of C,N, and P cycling across the soil profile(0–100 cm). We further confirmed that these keystone phylotypes consisted of many metabolic pathways of nutrient cycling and essential microbes involved in organic C mineralization, N_(2)O release, and biological N fixation. The chemical N, green manure, and cow manure resulted in the highest abundances of amoB, nifH, and GH48 genes and Nitrosomonadaceae,Azospirillaceae, and Sphingomonadaceae within the keystone phylotypes, and these microbes were significantly and positively correlated with N_(2)O release, N fixation, and organic C mineralization, respectively. Moreover, our results demonstrated that organic fertilization increased the effects of the network size and keystone phylotypes on the subsoil functions by facilitating the migration of soil microorganisms across the soil profiles and green manure with the highest migration rates. This study highlights the importance of the functionality of N cycling in controlling crop production and keystone phylotypes in regulating soil functions, and provides selectable fertilization strategies for maintaining crop production and soil functions across soil profiles in agricultural ecosystems.

Nematode Diversity in Phaeozem Agroecosystems of Northeast China

The diversity and distribution patterns of soil nematode communities in phaeozem agroecosystems of Northeast China were assessed to evaluate nematode taxonomic diversity and functional diversity in relation to climatic condition and soil characteristics in human modified landscape. Along the latitudinal gradient, soil samples were collected from north （Hailun） to south （Gongzhuling） down to a depth of 100 cm with intervals of 030, 20-40, 40-60, 60-80, and 80-100 cm. The nematode abundance and taxonomic diversity （generic richness） were lower at Hailun than at other sites, and higher values of evenness were observed at Hailun and Harbin than at Dehui and Gongzhuling. Nematode faunal analysis revealed that soil food web at Hailun was sueeessionally more mature or structured, and the environment little disturbed, while at Harbin and Gongzhuling, the soil food web was degraded with stressed environment. The environmental variables relevant in explaining the patterns of nematode distribution and diversity in phaeozem agroecosystems, using canonical correspondence analysis （CCA）, were the mean annual temperature, total nitrogen, electrical conductivity, mean annual precipitation, and other soil properties. Among these variables, the mean annual temperature was a relatively important factor, which could explain 29.05% of the variations in nematode composition.

Effect of grassland degradation on soil quality and soil biotic community in a semi-arid temperate steppe

Grasslands provide a number of ecosystem services for human society.Degradation of grasslands results in the loss of biodiversity and leads to the deterioration of ecosystem functions.In order to accurately assess the influence of grassland degradation on belowground ecosystems,we conducted experiments on a temperate steppe with different levels of degradation and investigated the influence of degradation on soil quality and soil biotic communities.Our results showed that grassland degradation significantly decreased soil quality,with lower values of soil quality index(SQI)observed in the degraded grassland than the meadow steppe and the grassland from the forest-steppe ecotone.Changes in the SQI along the grassland degradation gradient were positively correlated with soil carbon stock and the aboveground biomass,and negatively correlated with the root shoot ratio.Nematode trophic diversity and the ratio of fungal to bacterial PLFA were lower in the degraded grassland than the grassland from the forest-steppe ecotone.The dissimilarities in soil microbial and nematode community composition increased with the changes in soil quality index.Our results indicate that soil quality index based on the minimum data sets could effectively assess the influence of grassland degradation on soil biodiversity and ecosystem function.In order to effectively restore degraded grasslands,the key contributors to the soil quality,such as soil carbon,should be taken on priority basis for revitalizing the soil biodiversity and ecosystem function.

Soil protists: An untapped microbial resource of agriculture and environmental importance

Protists are essential components of soil biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. They play a vital role in the microbial food web as consumers of bacteria, fungi, and other small eukaryotes and are also involved in maintaining soil fertility and plant productivity. Protists also contribute to regulating and shaping the bacterial community in terrestrial ecosystems via specific prey spectra. They play a role in plant growth promotion and plant health improvement,mostly via nutrient cycling, grazing, and the activation of bacterial genes required for plant growth and phytopathogen suppression. Thus, protists may prove to be a useful inoculant as biofertilizer and biocontrol agent. They can also be applied as model organisms as bioindicators of soil health. Despite their usefulness and essentiality, they are often forgotten and under-researched components of the soil microbiome, as most of our research focuses on bacteria and fungi. In this review, we provide an overview of the role of protists in plant productivity and plant health management and in shifts in soil bacterial community composition, as well as their roles as bioindicator. We also discuss the perspectives of knowledge gaps and future prospects to further improve soil biology.More research in soil protistology will provide insights into sustainable agriculture and environmental health alongside the study of bacteria and fungi.

Characterization of soil fauna under the influence of mercury atmospheric deposition in Atlantic Forest, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The increasing levels of mercury（Hg） found in the atmosphere arising from anthropogenic sources, have been the object of great concern in the past two decades in industrialized countries. Brazil is the seventh country with the highest rate of mercury in the atmosphere.The major input of Hg to ecosystems is through atmospheric deposition（wet and dry）, being transported in the atmosphere over large distances. The forest biomes are of strong importance in the atmosphere/soil cycling of elemental Hg through foliar uptake and subsequent transference to the soil through litter, playing an important role as sink of this element. Soil microarthropods are keys to understanding the soil ecosystem, and for such purpose were characterized by the soil fauna of two Units of Forest Conservation of the state of the Rio de Janeiro, inwhich one of the areas suffer quite interference from petrochemicals and industrial anthropogenic activities and other area almost exempts of these perturbations. The results showed that soil and litter of the Atlantic Forest in Brazil tend to stock high mercury concentrations, which could affect the abundance and richness of soil fauna, endangering its biodiversity and thereby the functioning of ecosystems.