Impact of nutrient amendments on soil microbiome of Medicago sativa

The goals of this growth chamber study were: 1) to perform a multigeneration selection on a common starting soil microbiome under four different nutrient amendment treatments - a control treatment (no amendments), a compost amendment treatment, a low rate of inorganic phosphorous treatment, and a high rate of inorganic phosphorous treatment - and determine impacts of each regime on microbial community structure; 2) to perform a reciprocal transplant of the four distinct microbiomes into the four soil treatments (a total of 16 crosses) to determine the resilience of microbial community structure under novel soil conditions; 3) to determine if differences in microbiome structure and function impacted alfalfa growth.