Agricultural management effects on soil microbiome

Bacteria and fungi play critical roles in soil ecosystems, but they are threatened by the ever increasing anthropogenic conversion of natural ecosystems into agricultural land. Alternative farming systems such as organic farming are advocated to reduce this impact, though management evaluations remain ambiguous and lack an appropriate reference. We used high throughput amplicon sequencing to investigate the effect of organic and integrated pest management (IPM) on soil fungal and bacterial communities in tree and drive rows of apple orchards, with semi-natural grasslands as a benchmark.