Functional Diversity of Soil Microbial Community after Conversion of a Chestnut Forest to an Agricultural System

Paola Iovieno, Riccardo Scotti and Massimo Zaccardelli
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Paola Iovieno: CREA Research Centre for Vegetable and Ornamental Crops, Via Cavalleggeri 25, 84098 Pontecagnano Faiano, Italy
Riccardo Scotti: CREA Research Centre for Vegetable and Ornamental Crops, Via Cavalleggeri 25, 84098 Pontecagnano Faiano, Italy
Massimo Zaccardelli: CREA Research Centre for Vegetable and Ornamental Crops, Via Cavalleggeri 25, 84098 Pontecagnano Faiano, Italy

Agriculture, 2021, vol. 11, issue 1, 1-16

Abstract: In the National park of Cilento, Vallo di Diano and Alburni (South Italy), a portion of a chestnut forest was converted in 2012 into an agricultural system in order to crop a local variety of bean. We investigated the effect over time of the conversion on the functional diversity of the soil microbial community by two different approaches: the catabolic response profile, based on the short time CO 2 evolution induced by 25 simple organic substrates and the Biolog community level physiological profile (CLPP), based on the growth of microorganisms on 31 different substrates. The soils were sampled at 13, 17, 29, 41 and 49 months after the soil use change. The results showed that the soil use change did not produce evident modifications of the substrate utilization patterns, but rather a general decrease in the activity in the agricultural soils, as a consequence of the reduction in organic matter content. The results also showed seasonal effects on the substrate utilization profiles and on the calculated functional diversity indexes. The two approaches appeared to be complementary: Degens catabolic response profile was more able to discriminate between the two systems, whereas the Biolog was more able to highlight the variability among samplings.

Keywords: catabolic response profile; Biolog; deforestation; soil organic carbon (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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