TY - JOUR
T1 - Experimental evaluation of biological regeneration of arable soil
T2 - The effects of grass-clover leys and arbuscular mycorrhizal inoculants on wheat growth, yield, and shoot pathology
AU - Austen, Nichola
AU - Tille, Stefanie
AU - Berdeni, Despina
AU - Firbank, Leslie G.
AU - Lappage, Martin
AU - Nelson, Michaela
AU - Helgason, Thorunn
AU - Marshall-Harries, Ewan
AU - Hughes, H. Bleddyn
AU - Summers, Richard
AU - Cameron, Duncan D.
AU - Leake, Jonathan R.
N1 - Funding Information:
We gratefully acknowledge funding for the consortium project MycoRhizaSoil: Combining wheat genotypes with cultivation methods to facilitate mycorrhizosphere organisms improving soil quality and crop resilience (BB/L026066/1, BB/L026023/1, and BB/L026007/1) funded by BBRSC, NERC, and Defra in the Global Food Security Soil and Rhizosphere Interactions for Sustainable Agri-Ecosystems (GFS-SARISA) call, as part of the Soil Security Program.
Funding Information:
The setting up and running of the field experiments was only possible through the generous practical assistance and advice of Mr. Peter Burgis of NIAB, Headley Hall. We thank Mr. Jake Wild also of NIAB Headley Hall for the operation of the plot combine harvester and for arranging the data collection of yields from this. Staff at Leeds University farm, including George Sorensen, provided essential support for the research. We acknowledge the assistance of undergraduate students Lucy Palfreeman and Laura Turner in the counting of ear mould infections.
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2022 Austen, Tille, Berdeni, Firbank, Lappage, Nelson, Helgason, Marshall-Harries, Hughes, Summers, Cameron and Leake.
PY - 2022/8/24
Y1 - 2022/8/24
N2 - Wheat yields have plateaued in the UK over the last 25 years, during which time most arable land has been annually cropped continuously with short rotations dominated by cereals. Arable intensification has depleted soil organic matter and biology, including mycorrhizas, which are affected by tillage, herbicides, and crop genotype. Here, we test whether winter wheat yields, mycorrhization, and shoot health can be improved simply by adopting less intensive tillage and adding commercial mycorrhizal inoculum to long-term arable fields, or if 3-year grass-clover leys followed direct drilling is more effective for biological regeneration of soil with reduced N fertiliser. We report a trial of mycorrhization, ear pathology, and yield performance of the parents and four double haploid lines from the Avalon x Cadenza winter wheat population in a long-term arable field that is divided into replicated treatment plots. These plots comprised wheat lines grown using ploughing or disc cultivation for 3 years, half of which received annual additions of commercial arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) inoculum, compared to 3-year mown grass-clover ley plots treated with glyphosate and direct-drilled. All plots annually received 35 kg of N ha−1 fertiliser without fungicides. The wheat lines did not differ in mycorrhization, which averaged only 34% and 40% of root length colonised (RLC) in the ploughed and disc-cultivated plots, respectively, and decreased with inoculation. In the ley, RLC increased to 52%. Two wheat lines were very susceptible to a sooty ear mould, which was lowest in the ley, and highest with disc cultivation. AM inoculation reduced ear infections by >50% in the susceptible lines. In the ley, yields ranged from 7.2 to 8.3 t ha−1, achieving 92 to 106% of UK average wheat yield in 2018 (7.8 t ha−1) but using only 25% of average N fertiliser. Yields with ploughing and disc cultivation averaged only 3.9 and 3.4 t ha−1, respectively, with AM inoculum reducing yields from 4.3 to 3.5 t ha−1 in ploughed plots, with no effect of disc cultivation. The findings reveal multiple benefits of reintegrating legume-rich leys into arable rotations as part of a strategy to regenerate soil quality and wheat crop health, reduce dependence on nitrogen fertilisers, enhance mycorrhization, and achieve good yields.
AB - Wheat yields have plateaued in the UK over the last 25 years, during which time most arable land has been annually cropped continuously with short rotations dominated by cereals. Arable intensification has depleted soil organic matter and biology, including mycorrhizas, which are affected by tillage, herbicides, and crop genotype. Here, we test whether winter wheat yields, mycorrhization, and shoot health can be improved simply by adopting less intensive tillage and adding commercial mycorrhizal inoculum to long-term arable fields, or if 3-year grass-clover leys followed direct drilling is more effective for biological regeneration of soil with reduced N fertiliser. We report a trial of mycorrhization, ear pathology, and yield performance of the parents and four double haploid lines from the Avalon x Cadenza winter wheat population in a long-term arable field that is divided into replicated treatment plots. These plots comprised wheat lines grown using ploughing or disc cultivation for 3 years, half of which received annual additions of commercial arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) inoculum, compared to 3-year mown grass-clover ley plots treated with glyphosate and direct-drilled. All plots annually received 35 kg of N ha−1 fertiliser without fungicides. The wheat lines did not differ in mycorrhization, which averaged only 34% and 40% of root length colonised (RLC) in the ploughed and disc-cultivated plots, respectively, and decreased with inoculation. In the ley, RLC increased to 52%. Two wheat lines were very susceptible to a sooty ear mould, which was lowest in the ley, and highest with disc cultivation. AM inoculation reduced ear infections by >50% in the susceptible lines. In the ley, yields ranged from 7.2 to 8.3 t ha−1, achieving 92 to 106% of UK average wheat yield in 2018 (7.8 t ha−1) but using only 25% of average N fertiliser. Yields with ploughing and disc cultivation averaged only 3.9 and 3.4 t ha−1, respectively, with AM inoculum reducing yields from 4.3 to 3.5 t ha−1 in ploughed plots, with no effect of disc cultivation. The findings reveal multiple benefits of reintegrating legume-rich leys into arable rotations as part of a strategy to regenerate soil quality and wheat crop health, reduce dependence on nitrogen fertilisers, enhance mycorrhization, and achieve good yields.
KW - regenerative agriculture
KW - arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi
KW - conservation tillage
KW - no tillage
KW - grass cover leys
KW - systemic induced resistance
U2 - 10.3389/fpls.2022.955985
DO - 10.3389/fpls.2022.955985
M3 - Article
SN - 1664-462X
VL - 13
JO - Frontiers in plant science
JF - Frontiers in plant science
ER -