Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Short-term plant species impact on microbial community structure in soils with long-term agricultural history

  • Regular Article
  • Published:
Plant and Soil Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The goal of our study was to capture the short-term effects of individual plant species on an established microbial community in a soil with a well-defined agricultural history. Using biochemical and molecular techniques we quantified the effects of plant species on changes in the soil microbial community over an 8-week time-course. We conducted a greenhouse experiment using field soil from a site that was managed as a Zea mays monoculture for over 50 years. The conditioned soil provided a baseline from which changes in microbial community composition through the effects of newly introduced plants could be determined. Within a short time frame (8 weeks), introduced plants influenced the soil microbial community in ways unique to each plant. Some species (Fagopyrm esculentum and xTriticosecale spp.) resulted in an increase of total microbial community richness, diversity and the stimulation of new microbial species not associated with the legacy vegetation. Other plants (Vicia villosa and Lolium multiflorum) tended to reduce community diversity. We suggest root surface area is good general predictor of rhizosphere microbial community diversity, but in some cases other plant traits may have dominant influence on plant-induced changes in microbial community composition.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Andrews JA, Matamala R, Westover KM, Schlesinger WH (2000) Temperature effects on the diversity of soil heterotrophs and the delta13C of soil-respired CO2. Soil Biology & Biochemistry 32:699–706

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Andrews JH, Harris RF (2000) The ecology and biogeography of microorganisms of plant surfaces. Annual review of Phytopathology 38:145–180

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bais H P S-W P, Tiffany L. Weir1, Ragan M. Callaway2 and Jorge M. Vivanco1 (2004) How plants communicate using the underground information superhighway. Trends in Plant Science 9

  • Beattie et al. (1995) The secret life of foliar bacterial pathogens on leaves. Annual Review of Phytopathology 33:145–172

  • Briones AM, Okabe S, Umemiya Y, Ramsing NB, Reichardt W, Okuyama H (2002) Influence of different cultivars on populations of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria in the root environment of rice. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 68:3067–3075

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Broeckling CD, Broz AK, Bergelson J, Manter DK, Vivanco JM (2008) Root exudates regulate soil fungal community composition and diversity. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 74:738–744

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Buckley DH, Schmidt TM (2001) The structure of microbial communities in soil and the lasting impact of cultivation. Microbial Ecology 42:11–21

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Buyer JS, Roberts DP, Russek CE (1999) Microbial community structure and function in the spermosphere as affected by soil and seed type. Canadian Journal of Microbiology 45:138–144

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Carlsen S, Fomsgaard I (2008) Biologically active secondary metabolites in white clover ( Trifolium repens L.)—a review focusing on contents in the plant, plant–pest interactions and transformation. Chemoecology 18:129–170

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Culman S, Bukowski R, Gauch H, Cadillo-Quiroz H, Buckley D (2009) T-REX: software for the processing and analysis of T-RFLP data. BMC Bioinformatics 10:171

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Culman SW, Duxbury JM, Lauren JG, Thies JE (2006) Microbial community response to soil solarization in Nepal's rice-wheat cropping system. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 38:3359–3371

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Culman SW, Gauch HG, Blackwood CB, Thies JE (2008) Analysis of T-RFLP data using analysis of variance and ordination methods: a comparative study. Journal of Microbiological Methods 75:55–63

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Davis CA, Smith LM (2001) Foraging strategies and niche dynamics of coexisting shorebirds at stopover sites in the southern great plains. The Auk 118:484–495

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • DeAngelis KM, Brodie EL, DeSantis TZ, Andersen GL, Lindow SE, Firestone MK (2008) Selective progressive response of soil microbial community to wild oat roots. ISME Journal 3:168–178

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Dixon RA, Lamb CJ (1990) Molecular communication in interactions between plants and microbial pathogens. Annual Review of Plant Physiology and Plant Molecular Biology 41:339–367

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Drinkwater LE, Snapp SS (2007) Nutrients in agroecosystems: rethinking the management paradigm. Advances in Agronomy 92:163–186

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Dunbar J, Ticknor LO, Kuske CR (2001) Phylogenetic specificity and reproducibility and new method for analysis of terminal restriction fragment profiles of 16S rRNA genes from bacterial communities. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 67:190–197

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Egert M, Marhan S, Wagner B, Scheu S, Friedrich MW (2004) Molecular profiling of 16S rRNA genes reveals diet-related differences of microbial communities in soil, gut, and casts of Lumbricus terrestris L. (Oligochaeta: Lumbricidae). FEMS Microbiology Ecology 48:187–197

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ettema CH, Wardle DA (2002) Spatial soil ecology. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 17:177–183

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eviner VT (2004) Plant traits that influence ecosystem processes vary independently among species. Ecology 85:2215–2229

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eviner VT, Chapin III FS, Vaughn CE (2006) Seasonal variations in plant species effects on soil N and P dynamics. Ecology 87:974–986

  • Fierer N, Jackson RB (2006) The diversity and biogeography of soil bacterial communities. PNAS 103:626–631

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fierer N, Schimel JP, Cates RG, Zou J (2001) Influence of balsam poplar tannin fractions on carbon and nitrogen dynamics in Alaskan taiga floodplain soils. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 33:1827–1839

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gauch HG Jr (2006) Statistical analysis of yield trials by AMMI and GGE. Crop Science 46:1488–1500

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gauch HGJ (1982) Multivariate analysis in community ecology. Cambridge Uuniv. Press.

  • Grayston SJ, Wang S, Campbell CD, Edwards AC (1998) Selective influence of plant species on microbial diversity in the rhizosphere. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 30:369–378

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Groffman PM, Driscoll CT, Fahey TJ, Hardy JP, Fitzhugh RD, Tierney GL (2001) Colder soils in a warmer world: a snow manipulation study in a northern hardwood forest ecosystem. Biogeochemistry 56:135–150

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hawkes CV, Wren IF, Herman DJ, Firestone MK (2005) Plant invasion alters nitrogen cycling by modifying the soil nitrifying community. Ecology Letters 8:976–985

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kieft TL, Soroker D, Firestone MK (1987) Microbial biomass response to a rapid increase in water potential when dry soil is wetted. Soil Biology Biochemistry 19:119–126

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lensi R, Clays-Josserand A, Jocteur Monrozier L (1995) Denitrifiers and denitrifying activity in size fractions of a mollisol under permanent pasture and continuous cultivation. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 27:61–69

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Narro L, Pandey S, Crossa J, De Leon C, Salazar F (2003) Using line x tester interaction for the formation of yellow maize synthetics tolerant to acid soils. Crop Science 43:1718–1728

    Google Scholar 

  • Newton JA, Fray RG (2004) Integration of environmental and host-derived signals with quorum sensing during plant-microbe interactions. Cellular Microbiology 6:213–224

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Oberson A, Friesen DK, Rao IM, Buhler S, Frossard E (2001) Phosphorus transformations in an oxisol under contrasting land-use systems: the role of the soil microbial biomass. Plant and Soil 237:197–210

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Orwin KH, Wardle DA, Greenfield LG (2006) Ecological consequences of carbon substrate identity and diversity in a laboratory study. Ecology 87:580–593

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Paterson E (2003) Importance of rhizodeposition in the coupling of plant and microbial productivity. European Journal of Soil Science 54:741–750

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Porazinska DL, Bardgett RD, Blaauw MB, Hunt HW, Parsons AN, Seastedt TR, Wall DH (2003) Relationships at the aboveground-belowground interface: plants, soil biota, and soil processes. Ecological Monographs 73:377–395

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Puget P, Drinkwater LE (2001) Short-term dynamics of root- and shoot-derived carbon from a leguminous green manure. Soil Science Society of America Journal 65:771–779

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rice CPP, Adam YB, Abdul-Baki F, Teasdale AA, John R (2005) Hydroxamic acid content and toxicity of rye at selected growth stages. Journal of Chemical Ecology 31:1887–1905

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Richardson AE (2001) Prospects for using soil microorganisms to improve the acquisition of phosphorus by plants. Australian Journal of Plant Physiology 28:897–906

    Google Scholar 

  • Robinson JV, Sandgren CD (1984) An experimental evaluation of diversity indices as environmental discriminators. Hydrobiologia 108:187–196

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rolfe BG, Gresshoff PM (1988) Genetic analysis of legume nodule initiation. Annual Review of Plant Physiology and Plant Molecular Biology 39:297–319

    Google Scholar 

  • Salles JF, van Veen JA, van Elsas JD (2004) Multivariate analyses of Burkholderia species in soil: effect of crop and land use history. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 70:4012–4020

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sarrantonio M (1994) Northeast cover crop handbook. The rodale institute.

  • Standish R, Cramer V, Hobbs R, Kobryn H (2006) Legacy of land-use evident in soils of Western Australia’s Wheatbelt. Plant and Soil 280:189–207

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Steenwerth KL, Jackson LE, Calderon FJ, Stromberg MR, Scow KM (2002) Soil microbial community composition and land use history in cultivated and grassland ecosystems of coastal California. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 34:1599–1611

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Vogel J, Normand P, Thioulouse J, Nesme X, Grundmann GL (2003) Relationship between spatial and genetic distance in Agrobacterium spp. in 1 cubic centimeter of soil. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 69:1482–1487

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Waldrop MP, Balser TC, Firestone MK (2000) Linking microbial community composition to function in a tropical soil. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 32:1837–1846

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Zak DR, Tilman D, Parmenter RR, Rice CW, Fisher FM, Vose J, Milchunas D, Martin CW (1994) Plant production and soil microorganisms in late-successional ecosystems: a continental-scale study. Ecology 75:2333–2347

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. USDA-ARS, Sustainable Agriculture Systems Lab, Beltsville, MD, 20705, USA

    Jude Maul

  2. Department of Horticulture, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

    Laurie Drinkwater

Authors
  1. Jude Maul
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Laurie Drinkwater
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jude Maul.

Additional information

Responsible Editor: Petra Marschner.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Maul, J., Drinkwater, L. Short-term plant species impact on microbial community structure in soils with long-term agricultural history. Plant Soil 330, 369–382 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-009-0211-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-009-0211-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation