Relationships between Soil Tillage Systems, Nematode Communities and Weed Seed Predation
Soil tillage is generally recognized as having a negative effect on soil health and weed seed predators. Recent advancements in conservation tillage practices allow for further comparison of how different levels of soil disturbances could influence soil food web communities. Field trials were conduc...
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| Format: | Article |
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MDPI AG
2022-05-01
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| Series: | Horticulturae |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2311-7524/8/5/425 |
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| author | Koon-Hui Wang Philip Waisen Alan W. Leslie Roshan Paudel Susan L. F. Meyer Cerruti R. R. Hooks |
| author_facet | Koon-Hui Wang Philip Waisen Alan W. Leslie Roshan Paudel Susan L. F. Meyer Cerruti R. R. Hooks |
| author_sort | Koon-Hui Wang |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Soil tillage is generally recognized as having a negative effect on soil health and weed seed predators. Recent advancements in conservation tillage practices allow for further comparison of how different levels of soil disturbances could influence soil food web communities. Field trials were conducted in 2017 and 2018 at two different sites to measure the effects of four cover crop termination treatments: conventional till (CT), no-till (NT), strip-till following roller-crimping (ST-RC), and strip-till with a living mulch between crop rows (ST-LM) on soil health using nematode community indices as soil health bioindicators. Following cover crop termination, the soil was monitored in the subsequent bell pepper (<i>Capsicum annuum</i>) crop over three sampling dates (June, August, and October). In the ST-RC treatment plots, soil nutrients were enriched (increased Enrichment Index, EI) and the soil food web structure was improved (higher Structure Index, SI) by the mid-season of the 2017 trial. In the 2018 trial, the ST-RC treatment enhanced fungal decomposition pathways (fungivore/fungivore + bacterivore ratio) throughout the bell pepper crop cycle and enhanced bacterial decomposition (abundance of bacterivorous nematodes) by the end of the cropping cycle compared to the no-till treatment, suggesting that the ST-RC treatment can further improve soil health conditions achieved by the NT treatment. Scatter plots of sampling points revealed that the treatments CT and NT had very distinct nematode-weed community assemblages in both trials, with the ST-RC and ST-LM treatments distributed closely with the NT treatment. Multivariate analysis among soil health bioindicators, weed pressure and weed seed predation explained 76.4 and 55.7% of the variance in the 2017 and 2018 trials, respectively. Weed pressure was consistently negatively related to (1) the SI, indicating soil disturbance would lead to more weed pressure; (2) the EI, indicating soil with higher weed pressure was linked to poor soil nutrient cycling, (3) cover crop residues left in the field from conservation tillage, or (4) how well the living mulch of red clover covered the ground. This study did not show that weed seed predation would lead to lower weed pressure but weed seed predation increased as weed biomass increased. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T03:46:58Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-04299a6e1b51418aa0532895b82c4b3c |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2311-7524 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T03:46:58Z |
| publishDate | 2022-05-01 |
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| record_format | Article |
| series | Horticulturae |
| spelling | doaj.art-04299a6e1b51418aa0532895b82c4b3c2023-11-23T11:17:06ZengMDPI AGHorticulturae2311-75242022-05-018542510.3390/horticulturae8050425Relationships between Soil Tillage Systems, Nematode Communities and Weed Seed PredationKoon-Hui Wang0Philip Waisen1Alan W. Leslie2Roshan Paudel3Susan L. F. Meyer4Cerruti R. R. Hooks5Department of Plant and Environmental Protection Sciences, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96822, USADepartment of Plant and Environmental Protection Sciences, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96822, USADepartment of Entomology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USADepartment of Plant and Environmental Protection Sciences, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96822, USAMycology and Nematology Genetic Diversity and Biology Laboratory, Henry A. Wallace Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, USDA, Beltsville, MD 20705, USADepartment of Entomology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USASoil tillage is generally recognized as having a negative effect on soil health and weed seed predators. Recent advancements in conservation tillage practices allow for further comparison of how different levels of soil disturbances could influence soil food web communities. Field trials were conducted in 2017 and 2018 at two different sites to measure the effects of four cover crop termination treatments: conventional till (CT), no-till (NT), strip-till following roller-crimping (ST-RC), and strip-till with a living mulch between crop rows (ST-LM) on soil health using nematode community indices as soil health bioindicators. Following cover crop termination, the soil was monitored in the subsequent bell pepper (<i>Capsicum annuum</i>) crop over three sampling dates (June, August, and October). In the ST-RC treatment plots, soil nutrients were enriched (increased Enrichment Index, EI) and the soil food web structure was improved (higher Structure Index, SI) by the mid-season of the 2017 trial. In the 2018 trial, the ST-RC treatment enhanced fungal decomposition pathways (fungivore/fungivore + bacterivore ratio) throughout the bell pepper crop cycle and enhanced bacterial decomposition (abundance of bacterivorous nematodes) by the end of the cropping cycle compared to the no-till treatment, suggesting that the ST-RC treatment can further improve soil health conditions achieved by the NT treatment. Scatter plots of sampling points revealed that the treatments CT and NT had very distinct nematode-weed community assemblages in both trials, with the ST-RC and ST-LM treatments distributed closely with the NT treatment. Multivariate analysis among soil health bioindicators, weed pressure and weed seed predation explained 76.4 and 55.7% of the variance in the 2017 and 2018 trials, respectively. Weed pressure was consistently negatively related to (1) the SI, indicating soil disturbance would lead to more weed pressure; (2) the EI, indicating soil with higher weed pressure was linked to poor soil nutrient cycling, (3) cover crop residues left in the field from conservation tillage, or (4) how well the living mulch of red clover covered the ground. This study did not show that weed seed predation would lead to lower weed pressure but weed seed predation increased as weed biomass increased.https://www.mdpi.com/2311-7524/8/5/425bell pepperconservation tillageliving mulchroller-crimpersoil disturbancesoil health |
| spellingShingle | Koon-Hui Wang Philip Waisen Alan W. Leslie Roshan Paudel Susan L. F. Meyer Cerruti R. R. Hooks Relationships between Soil Tillage Systems, Nematode Communities and Weed Seed Predation Horticulturae bell pepper conservation tillage living mulch roller-crimper soil disturbance soil health |
| title | Relationships between Soil Tillage Systems, Nematode Communities and Weed Seed Predation |
| title_full | Relationships between Soil Tillage Systems, Nematode Communities and Weed Seed Predation |
| title_fullStr | Relationships between Soil Tillage Systems, Nematode Communities and Weed Seed Predation |
| title_full_unstemmed | Relationships between Soil Tillage Systems, Nematode Communities and Weed Seed Predation |
| title_short | Relationships between Soil Tillage Systems, Nematode Communities and Weed Seed Predation |
| title_sort | relationships between soil tillage systems nematode communities and weed seed predation |
| topic | bell pepper conservation tillage living mulch roller-crimper soil disturbance soil health |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2311-7524/8/5/425 |
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