Soil microbial substrate properties and microbial community responses under irrigated organic and reduced-tillage crop and forage production systems.

ABSTRACT: Changes in soil microbiotic properties such as microbial biomass and community structure in response to alternative management systems are driven by microbial substrate quality and substrate utilization. We evaluated irrigated crop and forage production in two separate four-year experiments for differences in microbial substrate quality, microbial biomass and community structure, and microbial substrate utilization under conventional, organic, and reduced-tillage management systems. The six different management systems were imposed on fields previously under long-term, intensively tilled maize production. Soils under crop and forage production responded to conversion from monocropping to crop rotation, as well as to the three different management systems, but in different ways. Under crop

SUBMITTER: Ghimire R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4121199 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature