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Microbial N-cycling gene abundance is affected by cover crop specie and development stage in an integrated cropping system

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Abstract

Grasses of the Urochloa genus have been widely used in crop-livestock integration systems or as cover crops in no-till systems such as in rotation with maize. Some species of Urochloa have mechanisms to reduce nitrification. However, the responses of microbial functions in crop-rotation systems with grasses and its consequence on soil N dynamics are not well-understood. In this study, the soil nitrification potential and the abundance of ammonifying microorganisms, total bacteria and total archaea (16S rRNA gene), nitrogen-fixing bacteria (NFB, nifH), ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB, amoA) and archaea (AOA, amoA) were assessed in soil cultivated with ruzigrass (Urochloa ruziziensis), palisade grass (Urochloa brizantha) and Guinea grass (Panicum maximum). The abundance of ammonifying microorganisms was not affected by ruzigrass. Ruzigrass increased the soil nitrification potential compared with palisade and Guinea grass. Ruzigrass increased the abundance of N-fixing microorganisms at the middle and late growth stages. The abundances of nitrifying microorganisms and N-fixers in soil were positively correlated with the soil N–NH4+ content. Thus, biological nitrogen fixation might be an important input of N in systems of rotational production of maize with forage grasses. The abundance of microorganisms related to ammonification, nitrification and nitrogen fixing and ammonia-oxidizing archea was related to the development stage of the forage grass.

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Acknowledgements

This work was undertaken as part of NUCLEUS: a virtual joint center to deliver enhanced nitrogen use efficiency via an integrated soil–plant systems approach for the UK & Brazil, funded in São Paulo by FAPESP—São Paulo Research Foundation (Grant 2015/50305-8) and in the UK by the BBRSC/Newton Fund (BB/N013201/1). Publication number XXXX of the NIOO-KNAW, Netherlands Institute of Ecology.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Crop Science, School of Agricultural Sciences, São Paulo State University, Av. Universitária 3780, Botucatu, SP, 18610-034, Brazil

    Kassiano Felipe Rocha & Ciro Antonio Rosolem

  2. Department of Microbial Ecology, Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW), Wageningen, The Netherlands

    Eiko Eurya Kuramae & Márcio Fernandes Alves Leite

  3. Center for Nuclear Energy in Agriculture, University of São Paulo, Piracicaba, Brazil

    Beatriz Maria Ferrari Borges

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  1. Kassiano Felipe Rocha
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  2. Eiko Eurya Kuramae
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  3. Beatriz Maria Ferrari Borges
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  4. Márcio Fernandes Alves Leite
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  5. Ciro Antonio Rosolem
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Correspondence to Ciro Antonio Rosolem.

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Communicated by Erko Stackebrandt.

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Rocha, K.F., Kuramae, E.E., Borges, B.M.F. et al. Microbial N-cycling gene abundance is affected by cover crop specie and development stage in an integrated cropping system. Arch Microbiol 202, 2005–2012 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-020-01910-2

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