long-term tillage by fertility impact on soil microbial communities Targeted loci environmental

A long-term field study was conducted for 45 years near Belleville, IL on a poorly drained soil to determine the impact of tillage and fertilizer treatments on corn and soybean yields and soil properties. In the present study, we used high-throughput sequencing of bacterial, fungal, and oomycetes markers to explore changes in the soil microbial community structure and function. The 45-year study consisted of continuous corn (1970-1990) and a corn-soybean rotation (1991-2015). Two tillage regimes (Conventional till [CT], and no-till [NT]) and three fertilizer treatments (no fertilizer, N-only, and NPK) were distributed in a randomized split-plot design.