Actinobacteria Raw sequence reads. Actinobacteria

The study aimed to reveal how mulching practices could improve soil quality by altering the microbial community and its members’ interactions. We conducted a 7-year field experiment in an apple (Malus domestica cv. Fuji) orchard located on the Loess Plateau, China, from 2012 to 2018. Four treatments were applied: conventional tillage (CT), intercrop ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) cover (RE), inter-row cornstalk mulch (CS), and black ground fabric mulch (BF). Soil physicochemical properties were measured under the different treatments. Additionally, soil fungal and bacterial communities were analyzed by high-throughput sequencing of the 16S and ITS rRNA genes, respectively.