Bacterial communities of soil and earthworm casts of native Palouse Prairie remnants and no-till wheat cropping systems

Publication date: Available online 8 October 2019Source: Soil Biology and BiochemistryAuthor(s): Daniel C. Schlatter, Christopher M. Baugher, Kahl Kendall, David R. Huggins, Jodi L. Johnson-Maynard, Timothy C. PaulitzAbstractEarthworms are important ecosystem engineers and modify the physical and chemical properties of soils. However, less is known about how earthworms impact soil microbial communities. We compared bacterial communities of the bulk soil and earthworm casts in native prairie remnants and wheat cropped fields in the Palouse of Eastern Washington using next-generation sequencing. Communities among prairie sites were similar, indicating a consistent prairie community. The bulk soil and earthworm casts of native prairie locations had higher richness compared to agricultural sites, but similar diversity. Diversity tended to be higher in bulk soil than earthworm casts in native prairies but not agricultural soils. In native prairies, earthworm casts were enriched in the families Caulobacteraceae, Cellulomonadaceae, Cytophagaceae, and Microbacteriaceae, and the genera Flavobacterium, Caulobacter, Burkholderia, Brevundimonas, compared to the bulk soil. In agricultural soils, Geodermatophilaceae, Flavobacterium and Pseudomonas were relatively more abundant in casts, whereas bulk soil harbored greater relative abundances of taxa related to Acidobacteria GP1. Casts from prairies had higher abundances of Actinobacteria, including Cellulomonas, Pseudonocardia, Geodermatoph...
Source: Soil Biology and Biochemistry - Category: Biology Source Type: research