Bacterial diversity manipulation experiment with barley as crop species

An experiment that manipulates the bacterial diversity of small soil mesocosms with a barley crop plant was set up under greenhouse conditions. Using Illumina amplicon sequencing of the V3-V4 region of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene, the bacterial communities of bulk soil, rhizosphere soil as well as the root-associated bacteria were characterised. The experiment aimed to test the influence of bacterial diversity on the N-mineralisation capability from organic amendments and testing the effect on crop plants (barley) as phytometers. Besides the bacterial community, several plant-specific parameters were measured.