Bacterial Communities in the Rhizosphere at Different Growth Stages of Maize Cultivated in Soil Under Conventional and Conservation Agricultural Practices
Yendi E. Navarro‐Noya, Yosef Chávez-Romero, Stephanie Hereira‐Pacheco, Arit Seleny de León Lorenzana, Bram Govaerts, Nele Verhulst, Luc Dendooven
Abstract
We studied the effect of sustainable conservation agricultural practices versus intensive conventional ones on the soil microbial diversity, potential functionality, and community assembly in rhizosphere of maize cultivated in a semiarid environment. We found that conservation agriculture practices increased the diversity of soil microbial species and functions and strongly affected how they were structured compared to conventional practices. Microbes affected by the roots of maize, the rhizobiome, were different and more diverse than in the surrounding soil and their diversity increased when the plant grew. The agricultural practices affected the maize rhizobiome only in the early stages of growth, but this might have an important impact on the development of maize plant.