Nurturing Belowground Life: The Role Of Cover Crops in Shaping Soil Microbial Communities in Agroecosystems.

Summary

Soil, essential for life on Earth, faces degradation due to intensive agriculture. This thesis explores how cover crops, plants grown not for harvest but to enhance soil quality, impact soil microbial communities, or microbiome, composed of bacteria, fungi, protists and nematodes.

In this thesis, I demonstrated that cover crops alter the community assembly and activity of soil microorganisms around plant roots and in bulk soil after cover crop termination. These persisting changes affect the soil microbiome in a way that can foster more and more active beneficial microbes. These microbes can help the establishment and growth of the succeeding main crop, also by controlling diseases and improving the plant nutrient’s availability.

This thesis showcases the transformative potential of cover crops in shaping the soil microbiome in agroecosystems by boosting microbes related to increased soil health, and crop productivity, paving the way for future research in this field.