Fenlong-Ridging Promotes Microbial Activity in Sugarcane: A Soil and Root Metabarcoding Survey

Mingzheng Duan, Yanyan Long, Hongzeng Fan, Li Ma, Shijian Han, Suli Li, Benhui Wei and Lingqiang Wang
Additional contact information
Mingzheng Duan: Guangxi Key Laboratory of Sugarcane Biology, College of Agriculture, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China
Yanyan Long: Guangxi Key Laboratory of Sugarcane Biology, College of Agriculture, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China
Hongzeng Fan: Guangxi Key Laboratory of Sugarcane Biology, College of Agriculture, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China
Li Ma: Guangxi Key Laboratory of Sugarcane Biology, College of Agriculture, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China
Shijian Han: Guangxi Key Laboratory of Sugarcane Biology, College of Agriculture, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China
Suli Li: Guangxi Key Laboratory of Sugarcane Biology, College of Agriculture, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China
Benhui Wei: Guangxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences, 174 Daxue East Rd., Nanning 530007, China
Lingqiang Wang: Guangxi Key Laboratory of Sugarcane Biology, College of Agriculture, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China

Agriculture, 2022, vol. 12, issue 2, 1-14

Abstract: Fenlong-ridging (FL) is a recently proposed conservation tillage technology which has dramatic differences to traditional ones. Previous studies have demonstrated in many crops that FL has yield-increasing effects without additional inputs. However, little is known about the role that microbes play in mediating the growth-promoting effects of FL, which restricts its further application and improvement. Here, we characterized variation in the soil and root microbial diversity of sugarcane (GT44) under FL and traditional turn-over plough tillage (CK) by conducting 16S rRNA and ITS metabarcoding surveys. We also measured several phenotypic traits to determine sugarcane yields and analyzed the chemical properties of soil. We found that: (i) plant height (PH) and total biomass weight (TW) of sugarcane plants were 9.1% and 21.7% greater under FL than those under CK, indicating\increased biomass yield of the sugarcane in FL operation; (ii) contents of organic matter, total nitrogen, available phosphorus, and available potassium were lower in soil under FL than those under CK, which indicates the utilization of soil nutrients was greater in FL soil; (iii) FL promoted the activity of endophytic microbes in the roots, and these diverse microbial taxa might have an effect on sugarcane yield and soil chemical properties; and (iv) Sphingomonas, Rhizobium , and Paraburkholderia and Talaromyces, Didymella , and Fusarium were the top three most abundant genera of bacteria and fungi, respectively, in soil and root samples. In addition, strains from Rhizobium and Talaromyces were isolated to verify the results of the metabarcoding survey. Overall, our study provides new insights into the role of microbes in mediating the growth-promoting effects of FL. These findings could be used to further improve applications of this novel conservation tillage technology.

Keywords: conservation tillage; metabarcoding; smash ridging; soil chemical properties; soil microbial diversity; sugarcane (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: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/12/2/244/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/12/2/244/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:12:y:2022:i:2:p:244-:d:744780

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().