Fertilizer application has a stronger effect than tillage on soil microbiome assembly and recruitment

This study was conducted in a 34-year-old field trial at Carrington (ND, USA) comprising three tillage (no-till, minimum-till and conventional-till) and five fertilizer (0, 50, 100 and 150 lbs/acre of nitrogen as urea yearly, and a 200 lbs/acre of N as beef-feedlot manure at the start of a 4-year crop rotation) treatments. Using amplicon sequencing, microscopy and bioinformatics, we characterized soils and the microbiomes associated with bulk soil, rhizosphere and roots.