Impacts of switching tillage to no-tillage and vice versa on soil structure, enzyme activities, and prokaryotic community profiles in Argentinean semi-arid soils

GABBARINI, L A; FIGUEROLA, E; FRENE, J P; ROBLEDO, N B; IBARBALZ, F M; BABIN, D; SMALLA, K; ERIJMAN, L; WALL, L G

FEMS MICROBIOLOGY ECOLOGY

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Año: 2021

0168-6496

The effects of tillage on soil structure, physiology, and microbiota structure were studiedin a long-term field experiment, with side-to-side plots, established to compare effectsof conventional tillage (CT) vs. no-till (NT) agriculture. After 27 years, part of thefield under CT was switched to NT and vice versa. Soil texture, soil enzymatic profiles,and the prokaryotic community structure (16S rRNA genes amplicon sequencing) wereanalysed at two soil depths (0-5, 5-10 cm) in samples taken 6, 18, and 30 months afterswitching tillage practices. Soil enzymatic activities were higher in NT than CT, andenzymatic profiles responded to the changes much earlier than the overall prokaryoticcommunity structure. Beta diversity measurements of the prokaryotic community indicatedthat the levels of stratification observed in long-term NT soils were already recoveredin the new NT soils thirty months after switching from CT to NT. Bacteria andArchaea OTUs, which responded to NT were associated with coarse soil fraction, SOCand C cycle enzymes while CT responders were related to fine soil fractions and S cycleenzymes. This study showed the potential of managing the soil prokaryotic communityand soil health through changes in agricultural management practices.