Shifts in Bacterial Community Associated with Green Manure Soybean Intercropping and Edaphic Properties in a Tea Plantation

Fo-Ting Shen and Shih-Han Lin
Additional contact information
Fo-Ting Shen: Department of Soil and Environmental Sciences, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung 40227, Taiwan
Shih-Han Lin: Department of Soil and Environmental Sciences, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung 40227, Taiwan

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 20, 1-16

Abstract: The continuous cultivation with excessive application of agrochemicals has led to the deterioration of soils. Incorporating leguminous green manure (GM) was found to improve the physicochemical and biological properties of soils. However, the influence of GM soybean intercropping on the temporal distribution of bacterial communities in strongly acidic soils is less explored. In this study, a nine-month field trial of soybean intercropping was conducted in a deteriorated tea plantation. This was used to test the hypothesis that GM treatment ameliorates tea-cultivated environments through changing bacterial communities as well as edaphic properties. GM treatment was demonstrated to increase both functional and population diversity during all the months that were considered. An alteration of life strategies exhibited by bacterial communities in GM treatment was observed, which shifted from oligotrophy ( Acidobacteria , Chloroflexi , and the candidate phylum WPS-2) to copiotrophy ( Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria ). This also contributed to the remarkable increase in metabolic potential of bacterial communities toward all six carbon source categories. The potentially versatile organic matter decomposers and/or plant growth-promoting bacteria, such as Burkholderiaceae , Chitinophagaceae , Sphingobacteriaceae , and Sphingomonadaceae bacteria, were identified as the most effective biomarkers in GM treatment. These bacterial groups showed strong correlation with soil pH; organic matter; and available K, Ca, and Mg. The increased diversity, metabolic potential, and copiotrophic taxa provided insight into the benefits brought by soybean intercropping, with enhanced community stability, facilitated nutrient cycling, and microbe–plant interactions in the strongly acidic tea plantation.

Keywords: bacterial community; green manure soybean intercropping; tea plantation; life strategy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/20/11478/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/20/11478/ (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:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:20:p:11478-:d:658561

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

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