Soil microbiome biomass, activity, composition and <scp> CO <sub>2</sub> </scp> emissions in a long‐term organic and conventional farming systems
Margherita Santoni, Leonardo Verdi, Shamina Imran Pathan, Marco Napoli, Anna Dalla Marta, Francesca Romana Dani, Cesare Pacini, Maria Teresa Ceccherini
Abstract
Abstract The implementation of environmentally friendly agricultural policies has increased the need to compare agricultural aspects of conventional (CON) and organic farming (ORG) systems. The objective of the present work was to compare the effects of an organic and conventional long‐term experiment on bacterial and fungal biomass and activity, as well as soil CO 2 emission and readily available nitrogen forms in a soil cultivated with Helianthus annuus L. The microbial biomass was more active and abundant in ORG as well as soil CO 2 emission. Despite being less abundant, fungi were more active than bacteria in both ORG and CON experiments. 16S rRNA gene sequencing showed that the ORG treatment had a significantly greater bacterial richness than CON. Cyanobacteria, Actinobacteria and Proteobacteria were the most abundant phyla contributing more than others to the differences between the two systems. Moreover, the soil and content was not significantly different between ORG and CON, while was less in ORG. ORG sunflower yield was significantly less compared with CON. While much remains to be discovered about the effects of these agricultural practices on soil chemical properties and microbial diversity, our findings may contribute to this type of investigation.