1
|
Austen N, Tille S, Berdeni D, Firbank LG, Lappage M, Nelson M, Helgason T, Marshall-Harries E, Hughes HB, Summers R, Cameron DD, Leake JR. Experimental evaluation of biological regeneration of arable soil: The effects of grass-clover leys and arbuscular mycorrhizal inoculants on wheat growth, yield, and shoot pathology. Front Plant Sci 2022; 13:955985. [PMID: 36092419 PMCID: PMC9450525 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2022.955985] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/29/2022] [Accepted: 07/25/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Wheat yields have plateaued in the UK over the last 25 years, during which time most arable land has been annually cropped continuously with short rotations dominated by cereals. Arable intensification has depleted soil organic matter and biology, including mycorrhizas, which are affected by tillage, herbicides, and crop genotype. Here, we test whether winter wheat yields, mycorrhization, and shoot health can be improved simply by adopting less intensive tillage and adding commercial mycorrhizal inoculum to long-term arable fields, or if 3-year grass-clover leys followed direct drilling is more effective for biological regeneration of soil with reduced N fertiliser. We report a trial of mycorrhization, ear pathology, and yield performance of the parents and four double haploid lines from the Avalon x Cadenza winter wheat population in a long-term arable field that is divided into replicated treatment plots. These plots comprised wheat lines grown using ploughing or disc cultivation for 3 years, half of which received annual additions of commercial arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) inoculum, compared to 3-year mown grass-clover ley plots treated with glyphosate and direct-drilled. All plots annually received 35 kg of N ha-1 fertiliser without fungicides. The wheat lines did not differ in mycorrhization, which averaged only 34% and 40% of root length colonised (RLC) in the ploughed and disc-cultivated plots, respectively, and decreased with inoculation. In the ley, RLC increased to 52%. Two wheat lines were very susceptible to a sooty ear mould, which was lowest in the ley, and highest with disc cultivation. AM inoculation reduced ear infections by >50% in the susceptible lines. In the ley, yields ranged from 7.2 to 8.3 t ha-1, achieving 92 to 106% of UK average wheat yield in 2018 (7.8 t ha-1) but using only 25% of average N fertiliser. Yields with ploughing and disc cultivation averaged only 3.9 and 3.4 t ha-1, respectively, with AM inoculum reducing yields from 4.3 to 3.5 t ha-1 in ploughed plots, with no effect of disc cultivation. The findings reveal multiple benefits of reintegrating legume-rich leys into arable rotations as part of a strategy to regenerate soil quality and wheat crop health, reduce dependence on nitrogen fertilisers, enhance mycorrhization, and achieve good yields.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Nichola Austen
- Plants, Photosynthesis and Soil, School of Biosciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom
| | - Stefanie Tille
- Plants, Photosynthesis and Soil, School of Biosciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom
| | - Despina Berdeni
- Plants, Photosynthesis and Soil, School of Biosciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom
| | | | - Martin Lappage
- School of Biology, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom
| | - Michaela Nelson
- Department of Biology, University of York, York, United Kingdom
| | | | - Ewan Marshall-Harries
- Plants, Photosynthesis and Soil, School of Biosciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom
| | - H. Bleddyn Hughes
- Plants, Photosynthesis and Soil, School of Biosciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom
| | | | - Duncan D. Cameron
- The Institute for Sustainable Food at the University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom
| | - Jonathan R. Leake
- Plants, Photosynthesis and Soil, School of Biosciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Prendergast-Miller MT, Jones DT, Berdeni D, Bird S, Chapman PJ, Firbank L, Grayson R, Helgason T, Holden J, Lappage M, Leake J, Hodson ME. Arable fields as potential reservoirs of biodiversity: Earthworm populations increase in new leys. Sci Total Environ 2021; 789:147880. [PMID: 34058593 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.147880] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/29/2021] [Revised: 05/14/2021] [Accepted: 05/14/2021] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Managing soil to support biodiversity is important to sustain the ecosystem services provided by soils upon which society depends. There is increasing evidence that functional diversity of soil biota is important for ecosystem services, and has been degraded by intensive agriculture. Importantly, the spatial distribution of reservoirs of soil biota in and surrounding arable fields is poorly understood. In a field experiment, grass-clover ley strips were introduced into four arable fields which had been under continuous intensive/conventional arable rotation for more than 10 years. Earthworm communities in arable fields and newly established grass-clover leys, as well as field boundary land uses (hedgerows and grassy field margins), were monitored over 2 years after arable-to-ley conversions. Within 2 years, earthworm abundance in new leys was 732 ± 244 earthworms m-2, similar to that in field margin soils (619 ± 355 earthworms m-2 yr-1) and four times higher than in adjacent arable soil (185 ± 132 earthworms m-2). Relative to the arable soils, earthworm abundance under the new leys showed changes in community composition, structure and functional group, which were particularly associated with an increase in anecic earthworms; thus new leys became more similar to grassy field margins. Earthworm abundance was similar in new leys that were either connected to biodiversity reservoirs i.e. field margins and hedgerows, or not (installed earthworm barriers). This suggests that, for earthworm communities in typical arable fields, biodiversity reservoirs in adjacent field margins and hedgerows may not be critical for earthworm populations to increase. We conclude that the increase in earthworm abundance in the new leys observed over 2 years was driven by recruitment from the existing residual population in arable soils. Therefore, arable soils are also potential reservoirs of biodiversity.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Miranda T Prendergast-Miller
- Department of Environment and Geography, University of York, Wentworth Way, York YO10 5NG, UK; Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8ST, UK.
| | - David T Jones
- Life Sciences Department, Natural History Museum, London SW7 5BD, UK
| | - Despina Berdeni
- The University of Sheffield, Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK; Crop Physiology, ADAS Gleadthorpe, Meden Vale, Mansfield, Nottinghamshire NG20 9PD, UK
| | - Susannah Bird
- Department of Biology, University of York, Wentworth Way, YO10 5DD, UK
| | - Pippa J Chapman
- water@leeds, School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK
| | - Leslie Firbank
- water@leeds, School of Biology, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK
| | - Richard Grayson
- water@leeds, School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK
| | - Thorunn Helgason
- Department of Biology, University of York, Wentworth Way, YO10 5DD, UK
| | - Joseph Holden
- water@leeds, School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK
| | - Martin Lappage
- water@leeds, School of Biology, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK
| | - Jonathan Leake
- The University of Sheffield, Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK
| | - Mark E Hodson
- Department of Environment and Geography, University of York, Wentworth Way, York YO10 5NG, UK
| |
Collapse
|