The majority of microbial mediated soil processes depend on availability of organic matter (OM), water and air.
This study was designed to gain better understanding of the effects of short-term management practices on the microbial community and how changes in the microbial community affect key soil processes.
We see clear application of these low-cost genetically engineered microbial soil cocktails that have the potential to drastically improve soil health and composition. .
Changes in root exudates and associated microbial communities could influence soil processes, including carbon and nitrogen cycling, but these effects may differ depending on fescue and endophyte genetics.
For instance, seasonal patterns of litterfall have recently been shown to be important for the composition and activity of soil microbial communities, with consequences for decomposition and other soil processes (Pearse et al., 2013; Thoms and Gleixner, 2013).
In this paper, we propose the use of artificial soils as a simplified and adjustable tool to disentangle soil processes and test ecological theories on microbial communities.
Fertilizer application and soil processes in conventional and organic farming result in the formation of heterogeneous soil nutrient patches [ 4], and plant utilization of N patches depends on roots rapidly sensing and response to the local enrichment of nutrients where they are in competition with soil microbial N assimilation and nitrification, leaching, and denitrification [ 2, 3, 27, 28].
Because productivity of agricultural systems largely depends on soil microbial processes, the influence of different management strategies on soil microbial community structure was analyzed in a long-term field trial started in 1992.
Our objective was: (1) to determine how two years of annual or perennial plant cover and CO2 enrichment could affect Mediterranean soil microbial processes; (2) to test the resistance and the resilience of these soil functional processes after a natural perturbation.
Topography may affect soil microbial processes, however, the use of topographic data to model and predict the spatial distribution of soil microbial properties has not been widely reported.
