School of Science, Engineering and Environment, University of Salford, Salford, UK.
Sci Rep. 2019 Nov 18;9(1):16953. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-53342-8.
Modern agricultural practices have vastly increased crop production but negatively affected soil health. As such, there is a call to develop sustainable, ecologically-viable approaches to food production. Mixed-cropping of plant varieties can increase yields, although impacts on plant-associated microbial communities are unclear, despite their critical role in plant health and broader ecosystem function. We investigated how mixed-cropping between two field pea (Pisum sativum L.) varieties (Winfreda and Ambassador) influenced root-associated microbial communities and yield. The two varieties supported significantly different fungal and bacterial communities when grown as mono-crops. Mixed-cropping caused changes in microbial communities but with differences between varieties. Root bacterial communities of Winfreda remained stable in response to mixed-cropping, whereas those of Ambassador became more similar to Winfreda. Conversely, root fungal communities of Ambassador remained stable under mixed-cropping, and those of Winfreda shifted towards the composition of Ambassador. Microbial co-occurrence networks of both varieties were stronger and larger under mixed-cropping, which may improve stability and resilience in agricultural soils. Both varieties produced slightly higher yields under mixed-cropping, although overall Ambassador plants produced higher yields than Winfreda plants. Our results suggest that variety diversification may increase yield and promote microbial interactions.
现代农业实践大大提高了作物产量，但对土壤健康产生了负面影响。因此，人们呼吁开发可持续的、生态可行的粮食生产方法。混合种植多种植物品种可以提高产量，尽管它们对植物相关微生物群落的影响尚不清楚，但这些微生物群落对植物健康和更广泛的生态系统功能起着至关重要的作用。我们研究了两种田野豌豆（Pisum sativum L.）品种（Winfreda 和 Ambassador）间作如何影响根相关微生物群落和产量。这两个品种在单独种植时支持着明显不同的真菌和细菌群落。间作导致微生物群落发生变化，但品种之间存在差异。Winfreda 的根细菌群落对间作保持稳定，而 Ambassador 的根细菌群落变得更类似于 Winfreda。相反，Ambassador 的根真菌群落在间作下保持稳定，而 Winfreda 的根真菌群落则向 Ambassador 的组成转移。两种品种的微生物共同发生网络在间作下更强、更大，这可能提高农业土壤的稳定性和弹性。两种品种在间作下的产量略高，尽管总体而言 Ambassador 品种的产量高于 Winfreda 品种。我们的结果表明，品种多样化可能会提高产量并促进微生物相互作用。
