392-3 Effects of Soil Functional Zone Management on Fungal and Invertebrate Communities and on Ecosystem Services.

See more from this Division: ASA Section: Land Management and Conservation
See more from this Session: Soil Functional Zone Management:a Vehicle for Enhancing Agroecosystem Services

Wednesday, November 9, 2016: 10:05 AM
Phoenix Convention Center North, Room 221 A

Patrick M. Ewing, Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, Meng Li, Crop Sciences, University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, Lesley W. Atwood, Natural Resources and the Environment, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, Adam Davis, USDA-ARS Global Change and Photosynthesis Research Unit, Urbana, IL, Nicholas R. Jordan, 1991 Buford Circle, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, David A. Mortensen, Plant Science, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA and Richard G. Smith, University of New Hampshire, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH
Abstract:
High-functioning soil is central to meeting global food, feed, fuel, and fiber needs, and also reducing agriculture's environmental and economic costs. Increasingly, research points to the importance of soil biota - macro, meso, and micro flora and fauna - in dictating the ability of soil to promote crop growth by cycling nutrients, sequestering carbon, suppressing weeds and pathogens, and capturing and storing water. Soil functional zone management (SFZM) integrates contrasting disturbance and/or cropping regimes at a row-interrow scale using zone tillage. SFZM shows promise for maintaining high grain productivity while also providing refugia for soil biology in low-intensity zones. We test the effects of a model SFZM system, ridge till, on the structure of indicator soil biological communities in a maize-soybean rotation in the Northeastern and Midwestern United States. We contrast ridge till with chisel plow, both with and without a cereal rye cover crop. Our hypothesis is that the low disturbance of ridge till rows creates refuges for disturbance-sensitive, yet functionally important, invertebrates and mycorrhizal fungi. We further hypothesize that cover crops compliment ridge till’s biological diversity-promoting effects. In Illinois and Minnesota, we investigated mycorrhizal fungal communities. We found that early in the season and across years, the combination of warm temperatures, moderate moisture, and stability of ridge till enabled higher mycorrhizal colonization and species richness; cover cropping also increased mycorrhizal taxa richness. In Pennsylvania, we investigated arthropod communities. We found that soil faunal species diversity and community composition differ significantly by zone (row vs. interrow) regardless of management system or cover crop. However, the relatively undisturbed soils in the ridge till rows enabled soft bodied decomposers to persist. We discuss the functional implications of these results in terms of early-season nutrient uptake, weed suppression, and overall system sustainability.

See more from this Division: ASA Section: Land Management and Conservation
See more from this Session: Soil Functional Zone Management:a Vehicle for Enhancing Agroecosystem Services