Cover cropping rather than host crop identity may be a strong factor for influencing arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities in a cover crop rotational system with soybean and maize

To determine the significance of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) to improve sustainable food production, it is important to introduce cover crops to improve the diversity of AMF communities in roots and soil under crop rotational systems. We investigated the impact of cover crops such as Italian ryegrass, hairy vetch, brown mustard and bare fallow on the AMF communities in the roots of subsequent soybean and maize using an Illumina Miseq pyrosequencing.