Yield attributes, soil microbial composition, diversity, and network stability responded differently to drought in red clover-timothy grass mixed stand versus monoculture.
The aim of this study was to advance the understanding of these significantly important legume-based forage systems by investigating the interactions between drought, mixed-cropping systems, and soil microbial communities, providing insights into their implications for agricultural sustainability in drought-prone regions. We hypothesized that bacterial communities would show contrasting effects at the two cropping (legume-based mixed stand and monoculture) setups, showing differential responses to drought and post-drought recovery.To explore these dynamics, we employed a 16S rRNA-based approach for differential abundance analysis, comparing mixed and monoculture systems. This allowed us to assess bacterial enrichment or depletion under drought stress and post-drought recovery, providing insights into microbial shifts in these forage systems.