Priming Effects of Cover Cropping on Bacterial Community 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 8, 1-13

Abstract: The acidic nature of red soil commonly found in tea plantations provides unique niches for bacterial growth. These bacteria as well as soil properties are dynamic and vary with agricultural management practices. However, less is known about the influence of manipulation such as cover cropping on bacterial communities in tea plantations. In this study a field trial was conducted to address the short-term effects of soybean intercropping on a bacterial community. Diversity, metabolic potential and structure of the bacterial community were determined through community level physiological profiling and amplicon sequencing approaches. Cover cropping was observed to increase soil EC, available P, K, and microelements Fe, Mn, Cu, and Zn after three months of cultivation. Bacterial functional diversity and metabolic potential toward six carbon source categories also increased in response to cover cropping. Distinct bacterial communities among treatments were revealed, and the most effective biomarkers, such as Acidobacteriaceae , Burkholderiaceae , Rhodanobacteraceae , and Sphingomonadaceae, were identified in cover cropping. Members belonging to these families are considered as organic matter decomposers and/or plant growth promoting bacteria. We provided the first evidence that cover cropping boosted both copiotrophs ( Proteobacteria ) and oligotrophs ( Acidobacteria ), with potentially increased functional stability, facilitated nutrient cycling, and prospective benefits to plants in the tea plantation.

Keywords: priming effects; cover cropping; bacterial community; tea plantation (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: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/8/4345/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/8/4345/ (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:8:p:4345-:d:535857

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 ().