Metadata related to Optimized Intercropping System (NCBI PRJNA928765)

The Sahel of W Africa is a climate change hotspot, where soil degradation and recurring drought significantly reduce agricultural productivity. Erratic rainfall, exacerbated by climate change, t contributes to ongoing and future food insecurity in this region. The staple crop, pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum), is grown by subsistence farmers during the rainy season without fertilizer or irrigation (conditions also desired for US domestic biofuel cultivation). Indigenous farming practices demonstrate one solution: where farmers intercrop with an native woody shrub (Guiera senegalensis), millet drought resilience - and crop yields - are dramatically increased. One mechanism of this beneficial interaction: shrubs perform hydraulic redistribution of water to surface soil, assisting crops through growing-season drought periods. Additionally, the moister and more nutrient rich soils under the shrub canopy harbor a distinct and active microbial community; this work examines the role of these microbes in aiding the millet. We have  characterized this potential in partnership with the Joint Genome Institute (JGI, project number 505730) to metagenomically sequence the millet rhizo- and endo-sphere communities, with and without shrub intercropping, in long-term experimental plots in Senegal. Using the framework of known plant-microbe beneficial interactions we are analyzing metagenomes for genes and genomes related to plant growth promotion, and metagenomic data is publicly available via NCBI under PRJNA928765. Here, we publish soil chemical, plant biomass, and PLFA data obtained from the OSS during the  2019 sampling season and corresponding 2020 dry season.