Soil biota suppress maize growth and influence root traits under continuous monoculture

Lin Mao; Yongjun Liu; Jianjun Zhang; Jessica Okerblad; Senyu Chen; Nancy Collins Johnson

doi:10.1007/s11104-021-04848-6

Soil biota suppress maize growth and influence root traits under continuous monoculture

Lin Mao, Yongjun Liu, Jianjun Zhang, Jessica Okerblad, Senyu Chen, Nancy Collins Johnson

Southern Research and Outreach Center

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Abstract

Aims: This study investigated maize-soil biota interactions as well as the soil legacy effects of continuous monoculture (CM) on maize performance. Methods: We conducted a glasshouse experiment that compared the performance of maize inoculated with living or sterilized soil inocula collected from experimental field plots with cropping histories of 1 to 5 years of continuous maize monoculture, where the soil type is Nicollet clay loam with moderate fertility. We measured the biomass, yield, root traits and leaf nutrients of maize as well as eukaryotic soil organisms. Results: Inoculation with living soil dramatically reduced maize biomass and yield compared to inoculation with sterilized soil, showing CM to have strong negative soil biotic legacy effects on maize. Nonetheless, the strength of soil biotic effects on most maize variables were relatively stable over time under CM. The response of maize total biomass to living soil inoculation correlated positively with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal abundance but negatively with soil fauna abundance, whereas it did not relate with the abundance of plant pathogenetic fungi or herbivorous nematodes. The roots showed acquisitive syndromes (high specific root length but low root diameter) in sterilized soil but conservative syndromes (opposite traits) in living soil. The responses in root system structure were tightly related with AM fungal diversity and community composition. Conclusions: Our study shows strong and stable negative effects of soil biota on maize under CM. The complex effects of soil biota on maize performance highlight the need to explore the functions of different groups of soil organisms to better understand and control negative soil legacy effects in agroecosystems.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	441-455
Number of pages	15
Journal	Plant and Soil
Volume	461
Issue number	1-2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-021-04848-6
State	Published - Apr 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Special thanks to Rick Johnson, Wayne Gottschalk and Hannah Neigebauer for help in field soil sampling and transporting. This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32060260, 31870494), funds for Regents’ Professors at Northern Arizona University, and the Key Laboratory of High Water Utilization on Dryland of Gansu Province (HNSJJ-2019-05). YL and LM thank China Scholarship Council and Nancy Johnson for supporting them as visiting scholars at Northern Arizona University. We thank the four anonymous reviewers for the comments on earlier versions of the manuscript.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG part of Springer Nature.

Keywords

Crop rotation
Mycorrhiza
Plant-soil feedback
Root traits
Soil legacy
Zea mays

UN SDGs

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title = "Soil biota suppress maize growth and influence root traits under continuous monoculture",

abstract = "Aims: This study investigated maize-soil biota interactions as well as the soil legacy effects of continuous monoculture (CM) on maize performance. Methods: We conducted a glasshouse experiment that compared the performance of maize inoculated with living or sterilized soil inocula collected from experimental field plots with cropping histories of 1 to 5 years of continuous maize monoculture, where the soil type is Nicollet clay loam with moderate fertility. We measured the biomass, yield, root traits and leaf nutrients of maize as well as eukaryotic soil organisms. Results: Inoculation with living soil dramatically reduced maize biomass and yield compared to inoculation with sterilized soil, showing CM to have strong negative soil biotic legacy effects on maize. Nonetheless, the strength of soil biotic effects on most maize variables were relatively stable over time under CM. The response of maize total biomass to living soil inoculation correlated positively with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal abundance but negatively with soil fauna abundance, whereas it did not relate with the abundance of plant pathogenetic fungi or herbivorous nematodes. The roots showed acquisitive syndromes (high specific root length but low root diameter) in sterilized soil but conservative syndromes (opposite traits) in living soil. The responses in root system structure were tightly related with AM fungal diversity and community composition. Conclusions: Our study shows strong and stable negative effects of soil biota on maize under CM. The complex effects of soil biota on maize performance highlight the need to explore the functions of different groups of soil organisms to better understand and control negative soil legacy effects in agroecosystems.",

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author = "Lin Mao and Yongjun Liu and Jianjun Zhang and Jessica Okerblad and Senyu Chen and Johnson, {Nancy Collins}",

note = "Funding Information: Special thanks to Rick Johnson, Wayne Gottschalk and Hannah Neigebauer for help in field soil sampling and transporting. This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32060260, 31870494), funds for Regents{\textquoteright} Professors at Northern Arizona University, and the Key Laboratory of High Water Utilization on Dryland of Gansu Province (HNSJJ-2019-05). YL and LM thank China Scholarship Council and Nancy Johnson for supporting them as visiting scholars at Northern Arizona University. We thank the four anonymous reviewers for the comments on earlier versions of the manuscript. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG part of Springer Nature.",

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doi = "10.1007/s11104-021-04848-6",

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AU - Mao, Lin

AU - Liu, Yongjun

AU - Zhang, Jianjun

AU - Okerblad, Jessica

AU - Chen, Senyu

AU - Johnson, Nancy Collins

N1 - Funding Information: Special thanks to Rick Johnson, Wayne Gottschalk and Hannah Neigebauer for help in field soil sampling and transporting. This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32060260, 31870494), funds for Regents’ Professors at Northern Arizona University, and the Key Laboratory of High Water Utilization on Dryland of Gansu Province (HNSJJ-2019-05). YL and LM thank China Scholarship Council and Nancy Johnson for supporting them as visiting scholars at Northern Arizona University. We thank the four anonymous reviewers for the comments on earlier versions of the manuscript. Publisher Copyright: © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG part of Springer Nature.

PY - 2021/4

Y1 - 2021/4

N2 - Aims: This study investigated maize-soil biota interactions as well as the soil legacy effects of continuous monoculture (CM) on maize performance. Methods: We conducted a glasshouse experiment that compared the performance of maize inoculated with living or sterilized soil inocula collected from experimental field plots with cropping histories of 1 to 5 years of continuous maize monoculture, where the soil type is Nicollet clay loam with moderate fertility. We measured the biomass, yield, root traits and leaf nutrients of maize as well as eukaryotic soil organisms. Results: Inoculation with living soil dramatically reduced maize biomass and yield compared to inoculation with sterilized soil, showing CM to have strong negative soil biotic legacy effects on maize. Nonetheless, the strength of soil biotic effects on most maize variables were relatively stable over time under CM. The response of maize total biomass to living soil inoculation correlated positively with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal abundance but negatively with soil fauna abundance, whereas it did not relate with the abundance of plant pathogenetic fungi or herbivorous nematodes. The roots showed acquisitive syndromes (high specific root length but low root diameter) in sterilized soil but conservative syndromes (opposite traits) in living soil. The responses in root system structure were tightly related with AM fungal diversity and community composition. Conclusions: Our study shows strong and stable negative effects of soil biota on maize under CM. The complex effects of soil biota on maize performance highlight the need to explore the functions of different groups of soil organisms to better understand and control negative soil legacy effects in agroecosystems.

AB - Aims: This study investigated maize-soil biota interactions as well as the soil legacy effects of continuous monoculture (CM) on maize performance. Methods: We conducted a glasshouse experiment that compared the performance of maize inoculated with living or sterilized soil inocula collected from experimental field plots with cropping histories of 1 to 5 years of continuous maize monoculture, where the soil type is Nicollet clay loam with moderate fertility. We measured the biomass, yield, root traits and leaf nutrients of maize as well as eukaryotic soil organisms. Results: Inoculation with living soil dramatically reduced maize biomass and yield compared to inoculation with sterilized soil, showing CM to have strong negative soil biotic legacy effects on maize. Nonetheless, the strength of soil biotic effects on most maize variables were relatively stable over time under CM. The response of maize total biomass to living soil inoculation correlated positively with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal abundance but negatively with soil fauna abundance, whereas it did not relate with the abundance of plant pathogenetic fungi or herbivorous nematodes. The roots showed acquisitive syndromes (high specific root length but low root diameter) in sterilized soil but conservative syndromes (opposite traits) in living soil. The responses in root system structure were tightly related with AM fungal diversity and community composition. Conclusions: Our study shows strong and stable negative effects of soil biota on maize under CM. The complex effects of soil biota on maize performance highlight the need to explore the functions of different groups of soil organisms to better understand and control negative soil legacy effects in agroecosystems.

KW - Crop rotation

KW - Mycorrhiza

KW - Plant-soil feedback

KW - Root traits

KW - Soil legacy

KW - Zea mays

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Soil biota suppress maize growth and influence root traits under continuous monoculture

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

UN SDGs

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