Intertillage during Natural Farming Rice Paddy Production Negatively Impacted the Microbial Abundances in Soils but Not Diversities

In natural farming rice paddies, intertillage (tillage between rows, during rice growth period) is often performed mainly to remove weeds without the use of chemicals. Also, the intertillage disturbs soil surfaces, potentially impacting the characteristics of soil microbial communities, such as thei...

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Main Authors: Jin-Feng Lin, Eva-Maria Minarsch, Munehide Ishiguro, Yoshitaka Uchida
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2021-01-01
Series:Applied and Environmental Soil Science
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2021/6676456
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author Jin-Feng Lin
Eva-Maria Minarsch
Munehide Ishiguro
Yoshitaka Uchida
author_facet Jin-Feng Lin
Eva-Maria Minarsch
Munehide Ishiguro
Yoshitaka Uchida
author_sort Jin-Feng Lin
collection DOAJ
description In natural farming rice paddies, intertillage (tillage between rows, during rice growth period) is often performed mainly to remove weeds without the use of chemicals. Also, the intertillage disturbs soil surfaces, potentially impacting the characteristics of soil microbial communities, such as their diversity and abundance. Natural farming systems aim to maintain biodiversity, but it remains unclear whether the intertillage impacts soil microbes in rice paddies. Thus, this study aimed to understand to what extent “five times intertillage” treatment (5T) influences soil bacterial abundance and community structures compared with no tillage (NT), under a natural farming rice paddy system. Soils were sampled at rice proximity, soil surface, and 10 cm depth in a natural farming rice paddy, during the early to late vegetative phase (June to July), in Hokkaido, Japan. The 16S rRNA community structures and abundance were analyzed by next generation sequencing (NGS) and quantitative PCR, respectively. We observed that NT had significantly higher bacterial abundances at the soil surface than 5T. However, there were no clear differences between 5T and NT, regarding the bacterial community structures, including their diversity indices. Instead, the sampling timings markedly impacted the bacterial community structures for the rice proximity and soil surface, showing increasing diversity indices at the late vegetative stage, compared to the early vegetative stage, suggesting the interaction between the crop growth and bacterial communities. In this study, we did not observe the significant difference between the rice yield from NT (2.3 ± 0.7 t·ha−1) and 5T plots (2.7 ± 0.9 t·ha−1); however, the 5T might have negatively impacted soil bacterial abundances but not the community structure of the bacteria.
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spelling doaj-art-beb45a855bd94915bd804a664c2cc4c12025-08-20T02:18:35ZengWileyApplied and Environmental Soil Science1687-76671687-76752021-01-01202110.1155/2021/66764566676456Intertillage during Natural Farming Rice Paddy Production Negatively Impacted the Microbial Abundances in Soils but Not DiversitiesJin-Feng Lin0Eva-Maria Minarsch1Munehide Ishiguro2Yoshitaka Uchida3Graduate School of Agriculture, The Special Postgraduate Program in Biosphere Sustainability Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0808, JapanJustus-Liebig-University Gießen, Chair of Organic Farming, Karl-Glöckner-Strabe 21 C, 35394 Gieben, GermanyResearch Faculty of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0808, JapanResearch Faculty of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0808, JapanIn natural farming rice paddies, intertillage (tillage between rows, during rice growth period) is often performed mainly to remove weeds without the use of chemicals. Also, the intertillage disturbs soil surfaces, potentially impacting the characteristics of soil microbial communities, such as their diversity and abundance. Natural farming systems aim to maintain biodiversity, but it remains unclear whether the intertillage impacts soil microbes in rice paddies. Thus, this study aimed to understand to what extent “five times intertillage” treatment (5T) influences soil bacterial abundance and community structures compared with no tillage (NT), under a natural farming rice paddy system. Soils were sampled at rice proximity, soil surface, and 10 cm depth in a natural farming rice paddy, during the early to late vegetative phase (June to July), in Hokkaido, Japan. The 16S rRNA community structures and abundance were analyzed by next generation sequencing (NGS) and quantitative PCR, respectively. We observed that NT had significantly higher bacterial abundances at the soil surface than 5T. However, there were no clear differences between 5T and NT, regarding the bacterial community structures, including their diversity indices. Instead, the sampling timings markedly impacted the bacterial community structures for the rice proximity and soil surface, showing increasing diversity indices at the late vegetative stage, compared to the early vegetative stage, suggesting the interaction between the crop growth and bacterial communities. In this study, we did not observe the significant difference between the rice yield from NT (2.3 ± 0.7 t·ha−1) and 5T plots (2.7 ± 0.9 t·ha−1); however, the 5T might have negatively impacted soil bacterial abundances but not the community structure of the bacteria.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2021/6676456
spellingShingle Jin-Feng Lin
Eva-Maria Minarsch
Munehide Ishiguro
Yoshitaka Uchida
Intertillage during Natural Farming Rice Paddy Production Negatively Impacted the Microbial Abundances in Soils but Not Diversities
Applied and Environmental Soil Science
title Intertillage during Natural Farming Rice Paddy Production Negatively Impacted the Microbial Abundances in Soils but Not Diversities
title_full Intertillage during Natural Farming Rice Paddy Production Negatively Impacted the Microbial Abundances in Soils but Not Diversities
title_fullStr Intertillage during Natural Farming Rice Paddy Production Negatively Impacted the Microbial Abundances in Soils but Not Diversities
title_full_unstemmed Intertillage during Natural Farming Rice Paddy Production Negatively Impacted the Microbial Abundances in Soils but Not Diversities
title_short Intertillage during Natural Farming Rice Paddy Production Negatively Impacted the Microbial Abundances in Soils but Not Diversities
title_sort intertillage during natural farming rice paddy production negatively impacted the microbial abundances in soils but not diversities
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2021/6676456
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