title: Microbial community responses to soil tillage and crop rotation in a corn/soybean agroecosystem.
abstract: The acreage planted in corn and soybean crops is vast, and these crops contribute substantially to the world economy. The agricultural practices employed for farming these crops have major effects on ecosystem health at a worldwide scale. The microbial communities living in agricultural soils significantly contribute to nutrient uptake and cycling and can have both positive and negative impacts on the crops growing with them. In this study, we examined the impact of the crop planted and soil tillage on nutrient levels, microbial communities, and the biochemical pathways present in the soil. We found that farming practice, that is conventional tillage versus no-till, had a much greater impact on nearly everything measured compared to the crop planted. No-till fields tended to have higher nutrient levels and distinct microbial communities. Moreover, no-till fields had more DNA sequences associated with key nitrogen cycle processes, suggesting that the microbial communities were more active in cycling nitrogen. Our results indicate that tilling of agricultural soil may magnify the degree of nutrient waste and runoff by altering nutrient cycles through changes to microbial communities. Currently, a minority of acreage is maintained without tillage despite clear benefits to soil nutrient levels, and a decrease in nutrient runoff-both of which have ecosystem-level effects and both direct and indirect effects on humans and other organisms.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology Earlham College Richmond IN USA.
authors.forename: Chris R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology Earlham College Richmond IN USA.
authors.forename: Peter L
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Blair
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology Earlham College Richmond IN USA.
authors.forename: Charlie
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Boyd
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology Earlham College Richmond IN USA.
authors.forename: Brianne
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Cody
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology Earlham College Richmond IN USA; Present address: Department of Entomology University of Illinois Urbana Champaign IL USA.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hazel
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology Earlham College Richmond IN USA.
authors.forename: Ashley
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hedrick
authors.affiliation: School of Natural Science and Mathematics Indiana University East Richmond IN USA.
authors.forename: Hitesh
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kathuria
authors.affiliation: School of Natural Science and Mathematics Indiana University East Richmond IN USA.
authors.forename: Parul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Khurana
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology Earlham College Richmond IN USA.
authors.forename: Brent
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kramer
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science Earlham College Richmond IN USA.
authors.forename: Kristin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Muterspaw
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science Earlham College Richmond IN USA.
authors.forename: Charles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Peck
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology Earlham College Richmond IN USA.
authors.forename: Emily
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sells
authors.affiliation: School of Natural Science and Mathematics Indiana University East Richmond IN USA.
authors.forename: Jessica
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Skinner
authors.affiliation: School of Natural Science and Mathematics Indiana University East Richmond IN USA.
authors.forename: Cara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tegeler
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology Earlham College Richmond IN USA.
authors.forename: Zoe
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wolfe
keywords: 16S rRNA; MG‐RAST; crop rotation; microbial ecology; mothur; shotgun sequencing; tillage