Microbiome resilience of Amazonian forests: Agroforest divergence to bacteria and secondary forest succession convergence to fungi |
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Authors: | Márcio Fernandes Alves Leite Binbin Liu Ernesto Gómez Cardozo Hulda Rocha e Silva Ronildson Lima Luz Karol Henry Mavisoy Muchavisoy Flávio Henrique Reis Moraes Guillaume Xavier Rousseau George Kowalchuk Christoph Gehring Eiko Eurya Kuramae |
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Institution: | 1. Department of Microbial Ecology, Netherlands Institute of Ecology NIOO-KNAW, Wageningen, The Netherlands;2. Center for Agricultural Resources Research, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shijiazhuang, China;3. Agroecology Program of Maranhão State University (UEMA), São Luís, Brazil;4. Ecology and Biodiversity, Institute of Environmental Biology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands |
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Abstract: | An alarming and increasing deforestation rate threatens Amazon tropical ecosystems and subsequent degradation due to frequent fires. Agroforestry systems (AFS) may offer a sustainable alternative, reportedly mimicking the plant–soil interactions of the natural mature forest (MF). However, the role of microbial community in tropical AFS remains largely unknown. This knowledge is crucial for evaluating the sustainability of AFS and practices given the key role of microbes in the aboveground–belowground interactions. The current study, by comparing different AFS and successions of secondary and MFs, showed that AFS fostered distinct groups of bacterial community, diverging from the MFs, likely a result of management practices while secondary forests converged to the same soil microbiome found in the MF, by favoring the same groups of fungi. Model simulations reveal that AFS would require profound changes in aboveground biomass and in soil factors to reach the same microbiome found in MFs. In summary, AFS practices did not result in ecosystems mimicking natural forest plant–soil interactions but rather reshaped the ecosystem to a completely different relation between aboveground biomass, soil abiotic properties, and the soil microbiome. |
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Keywords: | aboveground–belowground interactions forest regrowth homegarden land-use changes slash-and-burn agriculture soil microbiome tropical rainforest |
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