The effects of tillage on soil structure, physiology and microbiota structure were studied in a long-term field experiment, with side-to-side plots, established to compare effects of conventional tillage (CT) vs no-till (NT) agriculture. After 27 years, part of the field under CT was switched to NT and vice versa. Soil texture, soil enzymatic profiles and the prokaryotic community structure (16S rRNA genes amplicon sequencing) were analyzed at two soil depths (0–5 and 5–10 cm) in samples taken 6, 18 and 30 months after switching tillage practices. Soil enzymatic activities were higher in NT than CT, and enzymatic profiles responded to the changes much earlier than the overall prokaryotic community structure. Beta diversity measurements of the prokaryotic community indicated that the levels of stratification observed in long-term NT soils were already recovered in the new NT soils 30 months after switching from CT to NT. Bacteria and Archaea OTUs that responded to NT were associated with coarse soil fraction, soil organic carbon and C cycle enzymes, while CT responders were related to fine soil fractions and S cycle enzymes. This study showed the potential of managing the soil prokaryotic community and soil health through changes in agricultural management practices.

中文翻译：

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耕作与免耕交替对阿根廷半干旱土壤中土壤结构、酶活性和原核生物群落分布的影响

在长期田间试验中研究了耕作对土壤结构、生理学和微生物群结构的影响，并建立了横向图，以比较传统耕作 (CT) 与免耕 (NT) 农业的影响。27年后，CT下的部分领域切换到NT，反之亦然。在转换耕作方式后 6、18 和 30 个月采集的样本中，在两个土壤深度（0-5 和 5-10 cm）分析了土壤质地、土壤酶谱和原核群落结构（16S rRNA 基因扩增子测序）。NT 中的土壤酶活性高于 CT，并且酶谱对变化的反应比整体原核群落结构更早。原核生物群落的 β 多样性测量表明，在长期 NT 土壤中观察到的分层水平已经在从 CT 转换到 NT 30 个月后在新的 NT 土壤中恢复。对 NT 有反应的细菌和古生菌 OTU 与粗土壤组分、土壤有机碳和 C 循环酶有关，而 CT 反应者与细土壤组分和 S 循环酶有关。这项研究显示了通过改变农业管理实践来管理土壤原核生物群落和土壤健康的潜力。