Long-term mineral fertilization shaped aboveground plant and belowground bacterial and fungal communities more than cutting frequency in a temperate grassland.
Appl. Soil Ecol. 215:106462 (2025)
Agricultural grassland management intensity strongly influences soil microbial community structure in Europe, though the influence of individual practices, such as fertilization and cutting frequency, requires further investigation. Using a 46 year old field experiment in the Swiss Jura region, we examined how both fertilizer input and cutting frequency influence both soil microbial community structure and functional potential. For community structures of soil bacteria and fungi (determined via genetic metabarcoding) and plants (determined via plant species relevés) the effect of fertilization had a stronger effect than that of cutting frequency. The fatty acid biomarker for arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF, 16:1ω5), however, responded more to cutting frequency (relative effect size = 87.71 %) than fertilization (relative effect size = −7.90 %). Among bacteria with genes linked to soil phosphorous (P) and nitrogen (N) mobilization, only the abundance of the gcd gene (inorganic P solubilisation) displayed a significant fertilization effect. These findings suggest that long-term mineral fertilizer application is a key driver of differences in microbial community structure in grasslands of contrasting management type, and may influence bacterial P solubilisation capacity. Some microbial groups, such as AMF, appear more sensitive to cutting frequency, possibly due to additional plant re-growth. This study highlights the importance of disentangling agricultural management practices to better predict grassland plant and soil microbial responses to intensification.
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Publikationstyp
Artikel: Journalartikel
Dokumenttyp
Wissenschaftlicher Artikel
Typ der Hochschulschrift
Herausgeber
Schlagwörter
Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi ; Cutting Frequency ; Fertilizer ; Grassland Management ; Soil Microbial Community; Soil Microbial Communities; Nitrogen-fertilization; Inorganic Nitrogen; Diversity; Responses; Productivity; Biomass; Carbon
Keywords plus
Sprache
englisch
Veröffentlichungsjahr
2025
Prepublished im Jahr
0
HGF-Berichtsjahr
2025
ISSN (print) / ISBN
0929-1393
e-ISSN
1873-0272
ISBN
Bandtitel
Konferenztitel
Konferzenzdatum
Konferenzort
Konferenzband
Quellenangaben
Band: 215,
Heft: ,
Seiten: ,
Artikelnummer: 106462
Supplement: ,
Reihe
Verlag
Elsevier
Verlagsort
Radarweg 29, 1043 Nx Amsterdam, Netherlands
Tag d. mündl. Prüfung
0000-00-00
Betreuer
Gutachter
Prüfer
Topic
Hochschule
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Veröffentlichungsdatum
0000-00-00
Anmeldedatum
0000-00-00
Anmelder/Inhaber
weitere Inhaber
Anmeldeland
Priorität
Begutachtungsstatus
Peer reviewed
POF Topic(s)
30202 - Environmental Health
Forschungsfeld(er)
Environmental Sciences
PSP-Element(e)
G-504700-001
Förderungen
European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme
Teagasc
Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF)
Copyright
Erfassungsdatum
2025-10-21