Original title: Agricultural intensification reduces microbial network complexity and the abundance of keystone taxa in roots
Fungi live in and around wheat roots, where they can affect how well plants grow. Researchers compared these fungi on conventional, no-till, and organic farms in Switzerland. They found that organic farms had more complex networks of fungi and more keystone taxaKinds of organisms that play an especially important role in their community.—fungi that play especially important roles in a community. Soil phosphorus, soil compactness, pH, and the amount of root colonization by helpful fungi best explained where these key fungi occurred.
Imagine a group of neighbors sharing tools and helping each other with chores. The group becomes less connected when fewer people take part, and losing a particularly helpful neighbor can matter more than losing someone with few ties. In this paper, the neighbors are fungi living with wheat roots, and the researchers found more connections and more especially important fungi on organic farms.
Farmers depend on healthy roots to support crop performance and productivity. The findings link farming practices and soil conditions with the fungi living around wheat roots, including fungi that form associations with plants.
The abstract reports comparisons across 60 Swiss farmlands, but does not establish that farming practices alone caused the differences. It does not give the size of the effects or show whether the findings apply to crops or regions beyond the wheat farms studied.
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Agricultural intensification reduces microbial network complexity and the abundance of keystone taxa in roots — Samiran Banerjee, Florian Walder, Lucie Büchi et al. — The ISME Journal — doi:10.1038/s41396-019-0383-2
Abstract licence: CC BY
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper.