Potential legacy effects of biofuel cropping systems on soil microbial communities in southern Wisconsin, USA

Chao Liang, Gregg R. Sanford, Randall D. Jackson, Teri C. Balser

.

DOI: 10.4236/as.2011.22019                

Abstract

Soil microbial community structure is clearly linked to current plant species composition, but less is known about the legacy effects of plant species and agricultural management practices on soil microbial communities. Using microbial lipid biomarkers, we assessed patterns of com-munity-level diversity and abundance at depths of 0-10 and 10-25 cm from three hay (al-falfa/orchardgrass) and two corn plots in south ern Wisconsin. Principal components analysis of the lipid biomarkers revealed differential composition of the soil microbial communities at the two depths. Despite similar abundance of fungi, bacteria, actinomycete, protozoa, and total microbial lipids in the hay and corn at 0-10 cm, community structure differed with a sig-nificantly higher absolute abundance of arbus-cular mycorrhizal fungi and gram-negative bacteria in the hay plots. No significant micro-bial lipid mass differences were detected be-tween the two management regimes at 10-25 cm, but the proportional dominance of bacterial gram type differed with depth. These results indicate the potential for legacy effects of an-nual and perennial cropping systems manage-ment on microbial community composition and suggests the importance of considering past land-use when initiating long-term agroecolo- gical trials.

Keywords

Lipid Biomarker; Alfalfa; Hay; Corn; Agroecosystem

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1]	Lundquist, E.J., Scow, K.M., Jackson, L.E., Uesugi, S.L., Johnson, C.R. (1999) Rapid response of soil microbial com-munities from conventional, low input, and organic farming systems to a wet/dry cycle. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 31, 1661-1675.
[2]	Yao, H., Bowman, D., Shi, W. (2006) Soil microbial community structure and diversity in a turfgrass chronosequence: Land-use change versus turfgrass manage-ment. Applied Soil Ecology, 34, 209-218.
[3]	Zelles, L., Rackwitz, R., Bai, Q., Beck, T., Beese, F. (1995) Discrimina-tion of microbial diversity by fatty acid profiles of phosphol-ipids and lipopolysaccharides in differently cultivated soils. Plant and Soil, 170, 115-122.
[4]	Anderson, T.-H. (2003) Microbial eco-physiological indicators to asses soil quality. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 98, 285-293.
[5]	Visser, S., Parkinson, D. (1992) Soil biological criteria as indicators of soil quality: soil microorganisms. American Journal of Alternative Agriculture, 7, 33-37.
[6]	Steenwerth, K.L., Jackson, L.E., Calderon, F.J., Stromberg, M.R., Scow, K.M. (2002) Soil microbial commu-nity composition and land use history in cultivated and grass-land ecosystems of coastal California. Soil Biology and Bio-chemistry, 34, 1599-1611.
[7]	Balser, T.C., Firestone, M.K. (2005) Linking microbial community composition and soil processes in a California annual grassland and mixed-conifer forest. Biogeochemistry, 73, 395-415.
[8]	Nusslein, K., Tiedje, J.M. (1999) Soil bacterial community shift correlated with change from forest to pasture vegetation in a tropical soil. Appl. Environ. Microbiol., 65, 3622-3626.
[9]	Kennedy, A.C., Stubbs, T.L., Schillinger, W.F. (2004) Soil and crop manage-ment effects on soil microbiology. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL.
[10]	Myers, R.T., Zak, D.R., White, D.C., Peacock, A. (2001) Landscape-Level Patterns of Microbial Community Composition and Substrate Use in Upland Forest Ecosystems. Soil Sci Soc Am J, 65, 359-367.
[11]	Grayston, S.J., Griffith, G.S., Mawdsley, J.L., Campbell, C.D., Bardgett, R.D. (2001) Accounting for variability in soil microbial communities of temperate upland grassland ecosystems. Soil Biology and Bio-chemistry, 33, 533-551.
[12]	Ushio, M., Wagai, R., Balser, T.C., Kitayama, K. (2008) Variations in the soil microbial community composition of a tropical montane forest ecosys-tem: Does tree species matter? Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 40, 2699-2702.
[13]	van der Heijden, M.G.A., Bardgett, R.D., van Straalen, N.M. (2008) The unseen majority: soil microbes as drivers of plant diversity and productivity in terrestrial eco-systems. Ecology Letters, 11, 296-310.
[14]	Zak, D.R., Holmes, W.E., White, D.C., Peacock, A.D., Tilman, D. (2003) Plant diversity, soil microbial communities, and ecosystem function: are there any links? . Ecology, 84, 2042-2050.
[15]	Bartelt-Ryser, J., Joshi, J., Schmid, B., Brandl, H., Balser, T. (2005) Soil feedbacks of plant diversity on soil microbial communities and subsequent plant growth. Perspec-tives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics, 7, 27-49.
[16]	Pankhurst, C.E., Blair, B.L., Magarey, R.C., Stir-ling, G.R., Garside, A.L. (2005) Effects of biocides and rotation breaks on soil organisms associated with the poor early growth of sugarcane in continuous monoculture. Plant and Soil, 268, 255-269.
[17]	Robertson, G.P., Dale, V.H., Doering, O.C., Hamburg, S.P., Melillo, J.M., Wander, M.M., Parton, W.J., Adler, P.R., Barney, J.N., Cruse, R.M., Duke, C.S., Fearnside, P.M., Follett, R.F., Gibbs, H.K., Goldemberg, J., Mladenoff, D.J., Ojima, D., Palmer, M.W., Sharpley, A., Wallace, L., Weathers, K.C., Wiens, J.A., Wilhelm, W.W. (2008) Sustain-able Biofuels Redux. Science, 322, 49-50.
[18]	Vadas, P., Barnett, K., Undersander, D. (2008) Economics and energy of ethanol production from alfalfa, corn, and switchgrass in the Upper Midwest, USA. BioEnergy Research, 1, 44-55.
[19]	Samac, D.A., Jung, H.G., Lamb, J.F. (2006) De-velopment of alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) as a feedstock for production of ethanol and other bioproducts. In: Alcoholic Fuels, Minteer, S. (Editor), CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, 79-98.
[20]	Hurlbert, S. (1984) Psudoreplication and the de-sign of ecological experiments. Ecological Monographs, 54, 187-211.
[21]	Simmons, B.L., Coleman, D.C. (2008) Micro-bial community response to transition from conventional to conservation tillage in cotton fields. Applied Soil Ecology, 40, 518-528.
[22]	Kao-Kniffin, J., Balser, T.C. (2007) Elevated CO2 differentially alters belowground plant and soil microbial community structure in reed canary grass-invaded experimen-tal wetlands. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 39, 517-525.
[23]	Bligh, E.G., Dyer, W.J. (1959) A rapid method of total lipid extraction and purification. Canadian Journal of Physiology, 37(8): , 911-917.
[24]	Fritze, H., Pietikainen, J., Pennanen, T. (2000) Distribution of microbial biomass and phospholipid fatty acids in Podzol profiles under coniferous forest. European Journal of Soil Science, 51, 565-573.
[25]	Fierer, N., Schimel, J.P., Holden, P.A. (2003) Variations in microbial community composition through two soil depth profiles. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 35, 167-176.
[26]	Jansa, J., Mozafar, A., Kuhn, G., Anken, T., Ruh, R., Sanders, I.R., Frossard, E. (2003) Soil tillage affects the community structure of mycorrhizal fungi in maize roots Eco-logical Applications, 13, 1164-1176.
[27]	Xie, Z.P., Staehelin, C., Vierheilig, H., Wiemken, A., Jabbouri, S., Broughton, W.J., Vogeli-Lange, R., Boller, T. (1995) Rhizobial nodulation fac-tors stimulate mycorrhizal colonization of nodulating and nonnodulating soybeans. Plant Physiol., 108, 1519-1525.
[28]	White, P.M., Rice, C.W. (2009) Tillage Ef-fects on Microbial and Carbon Dynamics during Plant Residue Decomposition. Soil Sci Soc Am J, 73, 138-145.
[29]	Paul, E.A., Clark, F.E. (1996) Soil Microbiology and Biochemistry. Academic Press, San Diego