Promotion of Lotus tenuis in the Flooding Pampa (Argentina) increases the soil fungal diversity

NIEVA, AMIRA SUSANA; BAILLERES, MATÍAS A.; LLAMES, MARÍA EUGENIA; TABOADA, MIGUEL ANGEL; RUIZ, OSCAR A.; MENÉNDEZ, ANA

FUNGAL ECOLOGY

ELSEVIER SCI LTD

Año: 2018 vol. 33 p. 80 - 91

1754-5048

Forage promotion is an increasingly used agricultural practice that requires herbicide application toremove competing plant species. This work examined the effect of the forage legume Lotus tenuis on thefungal community composition at three sites of the Flooding Pampa, Argentina. Replicate paddocks,managed either by herbicide-mediated promotion of L. tenuis or unmanaged (dominated by grasses)were compared using 454 pyrosequencing, targeting the fungal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) gene.Our results suggest that fungal diversity in the studied area varied according to the site and the landuse (natural grasses vs. L. tenuis promotion). Several factors [pH, Ca2þ, P, and HCO3] were the main soilenvironmental drivers of distribution of fungal classes. Herbicide-mediated L. tenuis promotion led toincreased fungal diversity, with dominance of Fusarium species.