Effects of
plant community composition on total soil microbiota and on
phosphate-solubilizing bacteria of ex-arable lands.
Ignacio Santa Regina1, Alvaro
Peix1, Tomás Díaz1, Claudino
Rodríguez-Barrueco1 and Encarna Velázquez2
1 Instituto de
Recursos Naturales y Agrobiología (IRNA. CSIC).
Salamanca, SPAIN.
2 Departamento de Microbiología y
Genética, Facultad de Farmacia, Universidad de Salamanca
Salamanca
37007, SPAIN.
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It is well
known that trophic interactions between plant cover and soil organisms are key
factors in ecosystems balance. Plant-microbe relationships ocurring naturally
in soil play a central role in composition of plant communities as well as
microbial populations in soil. Many agricultural lands from Europe which were
abandoned because of Agricultural Common Policy, are being converted into more
natural ecosystems in order to enhanced and preserve biodiversity.
The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of different
experimental plant cover composition on soil microbiota of set-aside land, and
the evolution of microbial populations within the different seasons, focusing
on microorganisms important in nutrient cycling, and so phosphate solubilizing
bacteria were used as indicator for testing these effects and processes.
The results showed that generally high plant diversity treatment was the one with more total soil microbiota, but this was not so clear for phosphate-solubilizing bacteria. It was observed that phosphate-solubilizing bacteria was increasing from Autumn to Spring, and had a great fall in Summer, whereas total soil microbiota was more constant in the different seasons.