Cover cropping reduces the negative effect of salinity on soil microbiomes

Soil salinization is a major abiotic stress that imposes high osmotic stress on plant growth, thereby limiting crop productivity. It also acts as an environmental filter for microbes, impacting associated ecosystem services and functions. Agricultural practices such as cover cropping can help mitigate the negative impacts of soil salinity. However, our knowledge of how cover cropping and salinity influence soil microbial diversity and complexity is limited. We conducted a field study to determine the soil microbial properties over four locations with salinity (saline: SS, and non-saline: NS) and cover cropping (cover-cropped: CC, and non-cover-cropped: NC) treatments.