Wheat rhizosphere fungal community is affected by tillage and plant growth

Agricultural management measures, including tillage, considerably alter the rhizosphere fungal community; however, traditional snapshot sampling fail to represent the rhizosphere fungal community patterns over time. Here, we conducted a continuous study of wheat rhizosphere fungal communities through long-term tillage experiments (consisting of conventional and conservation tillage) to clarify tillage and growth stage effects. Tillage practices always affected rhizosphere fungal communities (R2 = 18%), and these effects significantly differed between plant growth stages. Drastic changes in plant phenotypes during the growing season may have driven the changes in rhizosphere fungal communities. Specifically, in the tillering stage (the early period of wheat growth), plant traits dynamics and the abundance of two crop-tillage sensitive modules were highly correlated. The conservation tillage abundant module was mainly composed of saprotrophs, whereas pathogens constituted the majority in modules enriched by conventional tillage. These results indicate that it is possible to influence the rhizosphere fungal community structure and function through agricultural management mediated by plant growth. Manipulation of tillage-sensitive OTUs and early rhizosphere fungal community modules can provide new opportunities for developing sustainable and highly productive agroecosystems.

Automated summary

The study found that agricultural management practices can influence the structure and function of the rhizosphere fungal community, with the dynamics of plant traits during the growth process potentially driving changes in the rhizosphere fungal community.