{"id":1558,"date":"2009-08-05T23:26:18","date_gmt":"2009-08-06T03:26:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/?p=1558"},"modified":"2009-08-05T23:26:18","modified_gmt":"2009-08-06T03:26:18","slug":"reduced-tilling-improves-soil-microbe-biodiversity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/2009\/08\/05\/reduced-tilling-improves-soil-microbe-biodiversity\/","title":{"rendered":"Reduced tilling improves soil microbe biodiversity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left\"><span style=\"color: #000000\"><a href=\"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/0\/04\/Fendt_Tractor_Ripping_up_Kulin.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft img-fluid\" style=\"margin: 5px 10px\" src=\"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/0\/04\/Fendt_Tractor_Ripping_up_Kulin.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"297\" height=\"223\"><\/a>The theme of this year\u2019s ESA meeting is \u201cEcological Knowledge and a Global Sustainable Society, and the program shows it: there are at least six sessions devoted completely to sustainable agriculture and agroforestry.\u00a0 Most studies approach the problem of increasing cropland productivity while causing little harm to the environment by assessing above-ground processes, like cropland biodiversity or the use of pesticides. But in a poster today, Shashi Kumar of Texas Tech reminds us that we also need to think about what\u2019s going on underground.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Soil bacteria affect the growth and success of crop plants by fixing nitrogen, aiding in the uptake of nutrients and decomposing dead organic matter. Kumar\u2019s poster shows, however, that some current farming practices may disrupt the soil ecosystem and decrease the effectiveness of the microbe community. Kumar explored the relationship between conventional tilling and low-tilling practices on farms in semi-arid areas of west Texas. In areas where soil tilling was kept at a minimum, Kumar and his colleagues found a higher diversity of soil bacteria; conventional tilling produced lower bacterial diversity.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Kumar says that conventional tillage systems disrupt soil particles and decrease soil pore size, which can lead to decreased water and soil access for microbes. Although he recognizes that tillage is necessary, he thinks that farmers can reduce their tillage, even in semi-arid regions, to promote soil bacterial biodiversity.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">\u201cWe are currently using so many different crop management systems, like pesticides, insecticides and fungicides, which are damaging to our soil,\u201d Kumar says. \u201cWhy shouldn\u2019t we focus on biological methods, since the bacteria are already there?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><br>\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The theme of this year\u2019s ESA meeting is \u201cEcological Knowledge and a Global Sustainable Society, and the program shows it: there are at least six sessions devoted completely to sustainable agriculture and agroforestry.\u00a0 Most studies approach the problem of increasing cropland productivity while causing little harm to the environment by assessing above-ground processes, like cropland biodiversity or the use of&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[87,2],"tags":[301,305,306],"class_list":["post-1558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-events","category-research","tag-esa-annual-meeting","tag-soil-microbes","tag-sustainable-agriculture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1558\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}