Li Guoqiang, Li Xuanjing, Jin Ting, Jiang Muyilan, Shi Peng, Wei Gehong
State Key Laboratory for Crop Stress Resistance and High-Efficiency Production, Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Agricultural and Environmental Microbiology, College of Life Sciences, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China.
Microorganisms. 2025 May 20;13(5):1160. doi: 10.3390/microorganisms13051160.
Soil microorganisms are increasingly recognized as critical regulators of farmland soil fertility and crop productivity. However, the impacts of spatial heterogeneity in soil microbial communities on bioindicators for evaluating agricultural practices remain poorly understood and warrant further validation. Through field experiments, this study investigated the differential effects of agricultural practice treatments on soil properties and bacterial communities between two main farmland soil compartments: intra-row and inter-row. Additionally, we explored the potential correlations between key taxa and soil properties, as well as maize biomass. Results revealed marked disparities in soil properties, bacterial community compositions, and co-occurrence network patterns between intra-row and inter-row soils. Agricultural practice treatments exerted significant impacts on bacterial community structures and network topological features in both intra-row and inter-row soils. Subsequent correlation analysis demonstrated strong relationships between soil properties and most keystone species. In addition, 42 and 41 indicator species were identified in intra-row and inter-row soils, respectively, including shared genera such as , , , , and . Notably, 22 key indicator species in intra-row soils displayed significant positive/negative correlations with maize biomass, whereas only 4 key indicator species showed negative correlations in inter-row soils. These findings highlight differential responses of bacterial communities to agricultural practices in distinct soil compartments. The intra-row soils harbored more bacterial taxa significantly associated with maize biomass, while the inter-row soils better reflected the effects of agricultural interventions. This study confirms the spatial variability of microbial communities as effective bioindicators for evaluating agricultural practice strategies. Identification of compartment-specific indicators provides novel microbiological insights into supporting precision agriculture practices.
土壤微生物越来越被认为是农田土壤肥力和作物生产力的关键调节者。然而，土壤微生物群落的空间异质性对评估农业实践的生物指标的影响仍知之甚少，需要进一步验证。通过田间试验，本研究调查了农业实践处理对两种主要农田土壤隔间（行内和行间）的土壤性质和细菌群落的不同影响。此外，我们还探讨了关键分类群与土壤性质以及玉米生物量之间的潜在相关性。结果显示，行内和行间土壤在土壤性质、细菌群落组成和共现网络模式方面存在显著差异。农业实践处理对行内和行间土壤的细菌群落结构和网络拓扑特征都有显著影响。随后的相关性分析表明，土壤性质与大多数关键物种之间存在密切关系。此外，在行内和行间土壤中分别鉴定出42种和41种指示物种，包括 、 、 、 、 等共有属。值得注意的是，行内土壤中的22种关键指示物种与玉米生物量呈显著正/负相关，而行间土壤中只有4种关键指示物种呈负相关。这些发现突出了细菌群落在不同土壤隔间中对农业实践的不同反应。行内土壤中含有更多与玉米生物量显著相关的细菌分类群，而行间土壤则更好地反映了农业干预的效果。本研究证实了微生物群落的空间变异性作为评估农业实践策略的有效生物指标。特定隔间指示物的识别为支持精准农业实践提供了新的微生物学见解。
