Cover crop monocultures and mixtures enhance bacterial abundance and functionality in the maize root zone.

ABSTRACT: Cover cropping is an effective method to protect agricultural soils from erosion, promote nutrient and moisture retention, encourage beneficial microbial activity, and maintain soil structure. Re-utilization of winter cover crop root channels by maize roots during summer allows the cash crop to extract resources from distal regions in the soil horizon. In this study, we investigated how cover cropping during winter followed by maize (Zea mays L.) during summer affects the spatiotemporal composition and function of the bacterial communities in the maize rhizosphere and surrounding soil samples using quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR), 16S ribosomal ribonucleic acid (rRNA) gene amplicon sequencing, and metaproteomics. We found that the bacterial community differed significan

SUBMITTER: Ghosh D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11546721 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature