Microbial indicators in Agriculture

Field-scale studies investigating the microbial taxa from agricultural experiments, in general, are sparse, with none investigating the long-term effect of crop rotation and tillage on the soil microbiome. Therefore, our goal was to determine the effect of rotations and tillage on the soil microbial community composition following 20 years of management. Crop rotations examined were continuous corn (CCC) [Zea mays L.], continuous soybean (SSS) [Glycine max (L.) Merr.], and each phase of a corn-soybean rotation (Cs and Sc). The tillage options were no-till (NT) and chisel tillage (T). We characterized microbial taxa using rRNA gene-based analysis conducted on an Illumina HiSeq sequencing system with downstream QIIME 2.0 processing. The experimental site was conducted at the Northwestern Illinois Agricultural Research and Demonstration Center (40°55′50″N, 90°43′38″W), near Monmouth, Illinois. The study was established in 1996, and a complete description of the site can be found in Behnke et al. (2018; 2020). The data set accompanies the 2021 publication. This research was partially funded by a HATCH Grant (no. ILLU-802- 947) and by Award No. AG 2018-67019-27807 both from the United States Department of Agriculture, USDA-NIFA.