Effect of pasture-grain crop rotations on the bacterial and archaeal community in a grain-pasture system in Uruguay

A better understanding of soil and plant-associated microbiomes in agroecosystems holds the potential to increase agricultural sustainability. We hypothesized that pasture-crop rotation improves grain production by maintaining soil health and fostering microbial diversity and plant-beneficial microorganisms. In a grain cropping system with no-tillage, continuous cropping (CC), short (SR) and long (LR) crop-pasture rotation (two and four years of pasture with cattle grazing, respectively) and an adjacent native grassland (NG, reference of a healthy soil) were compared in terms of soil health. We assessed soil health based on various physicochemical and biological properties. Soil health was increased in SR and LR in comparison with CC.