Soil Health and Microbiome Interactions: Enhancing Drought Resistance in Tropical Coffee Agroecosystems_16S Sequences
The sequences submitted for this project were obtained as part of a larger effort to quantify the long-term impact of sustainable soil management on soil health in Brazilian tropical coffee agroecosystems, focusing on how these practices influence soil microbiome composition and function under severe drought and plant yield and quality. The plots were selected from an experiment set up in January 2016 in Lavras, Brazil, where treatments had been in place for 6 years at the time of sampling for this study. The soil management treatments included interrow conservation practices as either combined coffee husk residue with signal grass cover between rows, agricultural gypsum with signal grass, or a control consisting of single coffee cropping with bare soil. We investigated drought resistance in soils from the final sampling period via a laboratory incubation that subjected soil samples to drought conditions. The fungal and bacterial communities changed with management and water availability, with rare species favored under drought conditions. Overall, the coffee crop managed using coffee husk combined with the signal grass resulted in a healthier soil that was more resilient to drought.