Small, significant and consistent effect of conservation agriculture on multi-kingdom biodiversity

Greater biodiversity in agroecosystems positively correlates with ecosystem stability and resilience. Larger animals and plants are known to be negatively affected by agrochemicals particularly employed by intensive agriculture. Bacterial, fungal and smaller animals underpin the productivity of agroecosystems but there no reports of the effects of agricultural management on multi-kingdom biodiversity. We sequenced the 16S, ITS2 and COI DNA barcode regions from soils of 24 New Zealand vineyards from two regions across three points in one year that were managed under either conventional or conservation approaches. Here we show that over one million species are present and that the method of management had a consistent significant effect on the abundances of bacterial, fungal and animal species. Despite their similarity, approximately 2-5% of the variance in biodiversity was influenced by management approach, which is the same size as the effect of time and geographic location on biodiversity.