Effects of agricultural management on rhizosphere microbial structure and function in processing tomato

Agricultural management practices affect bulk soil microbial communities and the ecosystem functions they carry out, but it remains unclear whether these effects extend to the rhizosphere. Given close linkages between rhizosphere processes and plant nutrition and productivity, understanding how management practices impact this critical zone is of great importance to optimize plant-soil interactions for agricultural sustainability. A comparison of six paired conventional-organic processing tomato farms was conducted to investigate relationships between management, soil physicochemical parameters, and rhizosphere microbial community composition and functions.