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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Wooster, Ohio » Application Technology Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #379964
Research Project: Sustainable Production and Pest Management Practices for Nursery, Greenhouse, and Protected Culture Crops

Location: Application Technology Research

Title: Long term crop rotation effect on subsequent soybean yield explained by soil and root-associated microbiome and soil health indicators

Author
item NEUPANE, ACHAL - South Dakota State University
item BULBUL, IZZET - South Dakota State University
item WANG, ZIYI - South Dakota State University
item LEHMAN, R - South Dakota State University
item NAFZIGER, EMERSON - University Of Illinois
item Marzano, Shin-Yi

Submitted to: Scientific Reports
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/23/2021
Publication Date: 4/28/2021
Citation: Neupane, A., Bulbul, I., Wang, Z., Lehman, R.M., Nafziger, E.D., Marzano, S.L. 2021. Long term crop rotation effect on subsequent soybean yield explained by soil and root-associated microbiome and soil health indicators. Scientific Reports. 11. Article 9200. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-88784-6.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-88784-6

Interpretive Summary: Crop rotation and sequencing are management tactics that can increase crop yields. The current study found that differential abundances of bacterial and fungal taxa were related to yield differences in a site-specific manner. Multivariate analysis result indicates that soil- and root-associated microbiome members contribute towards some of the observed yield differences that correlates well with different indicators of soil health. Pathogens as expected are associated with the low yield, and correlated negatively with soil protein and POXC that represent bioavailable N and carbon food source for microbes, respectively, whereas taxa selected by the high yield treatment had positive correlation with soil protein and POXC.

Technical Abstract: Crop rotation is an important management tactic that farmers use to manage crop production and reduce pests and diseases. Long-term crop rotations may select groups of microbes that form beneficial or pathogenic associations with the following crops, which could explain observed crop yield differences with different crop sequences. To test this hypothesis, we used two locations each with four long-term (14 year), replicated, rotation treatments: continuous corn (CCC), corn/corn/soybean (SCC), corn/soybean (CSC), and soybean/corn (SCS). Afterwards, soybean was planted, and yield and soil health indicators, bulk soil microbiome, and soybean root-associated microbiome were assessed. Soybean yields, as well as soil protein, and POXC as soil health indicators were higher following CCC than in the other three treatments at both locations. A bacterial taxa in family JG30-KF-AS9 was enriched in CCC, whereas Microvirga, Rhodomicrobium, and Micromonosporaceae were enriched in SCS. Several ascomycetes explain lowered yield as soybean pathogens in SCS. Surprisingly, Tumularia, Pyrenochaetopsis and Schizothecium were enriched in soybean roots after CCC, suggesting corn pathogens colonizing soybean roots as nonpathogens. Our finding of associations between soil health indicators related to microbiomes and soybean yield has wide-ranging implications, opening the possibility of manipulating microbiomes to improve crop yield potential.