BioProject

A better understanding of soil arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal diversity and soil carbon distribution within aggregate fractions is essential to any evaluation of the potential of no tillage agriculture for sustaining productivity and protecting the environment. More...

A better understanding of soil arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal diversity and soil carbon distribution within aggregate fractions is essential to any evaluation of the potential of no tillage agriculture for sustaining productivity and protecting the environment. The objective of this research was to compare the species composition of soil arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi under no tillage conditions with straw mulching (NTS) and conventional mouldboard ploughing tillage without straw (CT). The topsoil (0–20 cm depth) samples from three individual plots per treatment (CT and NTS) were collected at the maturation stage of summer maize (Zea mays L.) from a long-term experimental field trial that had been established on the Loess Plateau in Northwest China in October, 2009. The results showed that soil tillage can significantly affect the composition and abundance of fungal communities. Compared with CT, NTS significantly increased the percentage of Septoglomus and Glomus, but significantly decreased the percentage of Glomerales. We also found some endemic fungal communities in the soil of NTS. A close positive relationship between soil organic carbon in bulk soil and the percentage of Septoglomus and Glomus was recorded. Our results also demonstrated that NTS resulted in the positive protection of the community structure of AM fungi and played an important role in developing the sustainability of agriculture. Less...