TY - GEN A1 - Kundel, Dominika A1 - Bodenhausen, Natacha A1 - Bracht Jørgensen, Helene A1 - Truu, Jaak A1 - Birkhofer, Klaus A1 - Hedlund, Katarina A1 - Mäder, Paul A1 - Fliessbach, Andreas T1 - Effects of simulated drought on biological soil quality, microbial diversity and yields under long-term conventional and organic agriculture T2 - FEMS Microbiology Ecology N2 - Drought and agricultural management influence soil microorganisms with unknown consequences for the functioning ofagroecosystems. We simulated drought periods in organic (biodynamic) and conventional wheat fields and monitoredeffects on soil water content, microorganisms and crops. Above the wilting point, water content and microbial respirationwere higher under biodynamic than conventional farming. Highest bacterial and fungal abundances were found inbiodynamically managed soils, and distinct microbial communities characterised the farming systems. Most biological soilquality parameters and crop yields were only marginally affected by the experimental drought, except for arbuscularmycorrhizal fungi (AMF), which increased in abundance under the experimental drought in both farming systems. AMFwere further strongly promoted by biodynamic farming resulting in almost three times higher AMF abundance underexperimental drought in the biodynamic compared with the conventional farming system. Our data suggest an improvedwater storage capacity under biodynamic farming and confirms positive effects of biodynamic farming on biological soilquality. The interactive effects of the farming system and drought may further be investigated under more substantialdroughts. Given the importance of AMF for the plant’s water supply, more in-depth studies on AMF may help to clarify theirrole for yields under conditions predicted by future climate scenarios. KW - microbial diversity KW - rainout shelter KW - PLFA KW - amplicon-based sequencing KW - DOK trial KW - soil organic carbon Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/doi: 10.1093/femsec/fiaa205 SN - 1574-6941 VL - 96 IS - 12 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Birkhofer, Klaus A1 - Fliessbach, Andreas A1 - Gavín‐Centol, María Pilar A1 - Hedlund, Katarina A1 - Ingimarsdóttir, María A1 - Bracht Jørgensen, Helene A1 - Kozjek, Katja A1 - Meyer, Svenja A1 - Montserrat, Marta A1 - Sánchez-Moreno, Sara A1 - Moya-Laraño, Jordi A1 - Scheu, Stefan A1 - Serrano-Carnero, Diego A1 - Truu, Jaak A1 - Kundel, Dominika T1 - Conventional agriculture and not drought alters relationships between soil biota and functions T2 - Scientific Reports N2 - Soil biodiversity constitutes the biological pillars of ecosystem services provided by soils worldwide. Soil life is threatened by intense agricultural management and shifts in climatic conditions as two important global change drivers which are not often jointly studied under field conditions. We addressed the effects of experimental short‐term drought over the wheat growing season on soil organisms and ecosystem functions under organic and conventional farming in a Swiss long term trial. Our results suggest that activity and community metrics are suitable indicators for drought stress while microbial communities primarily responded to agricultural practices. Importantly, we found a significant loss of multiple pairwise positive and negative relationships between soil biota and process‐related variables in response to conventional farming, but not in response to experimental drought. These results suggest a considerable weakening of the contribution of soil biota to ecosystem functions under long‐term conventional agriculture. Independent of the farming system, experimental and seasonal (ambient) drought conditions directly affected soil biota and activity. A higher soil water content during early and intermediate stages of the growing season and a high number of significant relationships between soil biota to ecosystem functions suggest that organic farming provides a buffer against drought effects. Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-03276-x SN - 2045-2322 IS - 11 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Kozjek, Katja A1 - Kundel, Dominika A1 - K. Kushwaha, Sandeep A1 - Olsson, Pål Axel A1 - Ahrén, Dag A1 - Fliessbach, Andreas A1 - Birkhofer, Klaus A1 - Hedlund, Katarina T1 - Long-term agricultural management impacts arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi more than short-term experimental drought T2 - Applied Soil Ecology N2 - Agricultural management practices and extreme weather events associated with climate change can influence the diversity and abundance of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) with potential consequences for crop production. However, the importance of the interactive effects of long-term agricultural management and extreme weather events on AMF communities in agricultural soils is not yet fully explored. A short-term drought experiment with rainout-shelters was performed in winter wheat fields in a long-term agricultural trial with organic (biodynamic) and conventional management practices. During four months of the winter wheat growing period (March–June 2017), the rainout-shelters reduced the ambient precipitation by 65% on average. At two sampling dates, the AMF diversity and community composition were assessed using a single-molecule real-time (SMRT) DNA sequencing. A total of 955 amplicon sequence variants (ASVs), belonging to twelve genera were identified. The long-term farming systems and the short-term experimental drought did not affect AMF ASV diversity levels. The AMF community composition at the genus level differed between the organic and the conventional farming systems, but no distinctive communities were found in response to the experimental drought. The three most abundant genera Acaulospora, Paraglomus and Funneliformis were correlated to the two farming practices. Our study demonstrates that AMF communities in agricultural soils are responsive to long-term farming systems, and are resistant to one short-term summer drought event. KW - Experimental drought KW - Long-term farming practices KW - Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi KW - Single-molecule real-time sequencing Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsoil.2021.104140 SN - 0929-1393 SN - 1873-0272 IS - 168 ER -