Desert farming benefits from microbial potential in arid soils and promotes diversity and plant health.

ABSTRACT:

Background

To convert deserts into arable, green landscapes is a global vision, and desert farming is a strong growing area of agriculture world-wide. However, its effect on diversity of soil microbial communities, which are responsible for important ecosystem services like plant health, is still not known.

Methodology/principal findings

We studied the impact of long-term agriculture on desert soil in one of the most prominent examples for organic desert farming in Sekem (Egypt). Using a polyphasic methodological approach to analyse microbial communities in soil as well as associated with cultivated plants, drastic effects caused by 30 years of agriculture were detected. Analysing bacterial fingerprints, we found statistically significant differences between agricultural and

SUBMITTER: Koberl M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3166316 | biostudies-literature | 2011

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature