• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.687-702
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• 2012

The objective of this study was to determine crop rotation effects on potato yield, soil chemical and microbiological properties from a short-term field experiment from 2010 to 2011 in Jeju Island, Korea. Potato cropping systems included continuous and rotation sequences of soybean (Glycine max(L.) Merr.), barley (Hordeum vulgare var. hexastichon), rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) and broccoli (Brassica oleracea var. italica). Crop rotations increased the yields of potato from 31% to 52% compared with continuous potato. Marketable yield of potato was highest under soybean plus rapeseed rotation by $20.97MT\;ha^{-1}$ and lowest under continuous cropping by $11.95MT\;ha^{-1}$. The incidence and severity of scab disease was significantly lower in tubers from crop rotation with soybean plus barley. Differences in marketable tuber yields among rotations were associated with potato scab disease. Especially, incidence and severity of potato scab were strongly correlated with soil pH, exchangeable calcium, and bacteria population of the soil. Crop rotations significantly increased soil pH, available phosphate, exchangeable K and Ca, especially in crop rotations with soybean plus barley or rapeseed. Soil microbial biomass C of crop rotations with soybean plus barley or rapeseed, was also significantly higher compared with monoculture. In conclusion, crop rotation may decrease the incidence of soil-born pathogen by increasing soil chemical properties and soil microbial biomass. Overall, potato crop productivity was generally maintained in rotations that contained soybean plus barley or rapeseed but declined under continuous cropping system.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.242-247
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• 2011

Soil management for environment-friendly agriculture depends on the effects of soil microbial activities and soil fertility. To improve soil health for the upland crops, this study evaluated a relationship between soil chemical properties and soil microbial diversities at 25 sites in upland soils in Gyeongnam Province. The average nutrients in the upland soils were 1.7 times for available phosphorous, 1.4 times for exchangeable potassium and 1.5 times for exchangeable calcium higher compared to recommend concentrations in the upland soils. We found a significant positive correlation between the soil organic matter and the soil microbial biomass C (p<0.01). Contents of organic matter and dehydrogenase in the inclined piedmont soils were significantly higher than those in the other topographical soils (p<0.05). In addition, concentrations of organic matter and microbial biomass C in the loam soils were significantly higher than in the silt loam soils (p<0.05). In principal component analyses of chemical properties and microbial populations in the upland soils, our findings suggested that available phosphorous should be considered as potential factor responsible for the clear upland soils differentiation. The soil organic matter was positive correlation with Bacillus sp. and fungi, whereas soil pH was also positive correlation with Pseudomonas sp. in upland soils.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.49 no.6
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• pp.783-788
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• 2016

Agricultural management of paddy soil depends on the effects of soil microbial activities. The present study evaluated the soil microbial community of 25 paddy soils in Gyeongnam Province by fatty acid methyl ester (FAME). The average of microbial communities in paddy soils were 32.2% of total bacteria, 16.7% of Gram-negative bacteria, 12.9% of Gram-positive bacteria, 2.0% of actinomycetes, 14.9% of fungi, and 1.3% of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. The communities of total bacteria (34.9%) and Gram-negative bacteria (19.4%) in soils with $30{\sim}35g\;kg^{-1}$ of organic matter were significantly larger than those in soils with other organic matter levels. However, soils with $20{\sim}30g\;kg^{-1}$ of organic matter had significantly low ratio of cy17:0 to $16:1{\omega}7c$ and cy19:0 to $18:1{\omega}7c$ as compared with soils with $30{\sim}35g\;kg^{-1}$ of organic matter, indicating microbial stress decreased (p < 0.05). In principal component analyses of soil microbial communities, Gram-negative bacteria should be considered as a potential responsible factor for the obvious microbial community differentiation that was observed between the two different organic matter levels in paddy fields. Thus, soils containing $20{\sim}30g\;kg^{-1}$ of organic matter were responsible for strong effect on microbial biomass and stress in paddy fields.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.146-159
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• 2011

The continuous increase in the production of metals and their subsequent release into the environment has lead to increased concentration of these elements in agricultural soils. Because microbes are involved in almost every chemical transformations taking place in the soil, considerable attention has been given to assessing their responses to metal contaminants. Short-term and long-term exposures to toxic metals have been shown to reduce microbial diversity, biomass and activities in the soil. Several studies show that microbial parameters like basal respiration, metabolic quotient, and enzymatic activities, including those of oxidoreductases and those involved in the cycle of C, N, P and other elements, exhibit sensitivity to soil metal concentrations. These have been therefore, regarded as good indices for assessing the impact of metal contaminants to the soil. Metal contamination has also been extensively shown to decrease species diversity and cause shifts in microbial community structure. Biochemical and molecular techniques that are currently being employed to detect these changes are continuously challenged by several limiting factors, although showing some degree of sensitivity and efficiency. Variations and inconsistencies in the responses of bioindicators to metal stress in the soil can also be explained by differences in bioavailability of the metal to the microorganisms. This, in turn, is influenced by soil characteristics such as CEC, pH, soil particles and other factors. Therefore, aside from selecting the appropriate techniques to better understand microbial responses to metals, it is also important to understand the prevalent environmental conditions that interplay to bring about observed changes in any given soil parameter.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.118-126
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• 2011

Ester-linked fatty acid methyl ester (EL-FAME) profiles were used to describe differences in soil microbial communities influenced by conventional farming system (CFS), and organic farming system (OFS) in controlled horticultural land. Soil physicochemical properties and soil microbial communities were determined in the experimental fields. Higher organic matter content in OFS reduced soil bulk density which in turn increased the soil porosity. Generally, soil chemical properties in OFS were higher than those of CFS, but EC value in OFS was significantly lower than that of CFS. With the exception of Fe content, other macronutrient contents and pH in both farming system decreased with the soil depth. Soil microbial biomass of OFS was approximately 1.3 times in topsoil and 1.8 times in subsoil higher than those of CFS. Lower ratios of cy17:0 to $16:1{\omega}7c$ and cy19:0 to $18:1{\omega}7c$ were found in the CFS soils than the OFS soils, indicating that microbial stress decreased. The ratio of MUFA to SFA was higher in OFS due to organic input to the soil. In principal components analysis (PCA), the first variable accounted for 54.3%, while the second for 27.3%, respectively. The PC1 of the PCA separated the samples from CFS and OFS, while the PC2 of the PCA separated the samples from topsoil and subsoil. EL-FAMEs with the positive eigenvector coefficients for PC1 were cy17: 0 to $16:1{\omega}7c$ ratio, cy19:0 to $18:1{\omega}7c$ ratio, soil pH, soil organic matter, and soil $NO_3$-N content. Our findings suggest that the shifting cy19:0 to $18:1{\omega}7c$ ratio should be considered as potential factors responsible for the clear microbial community differentiation observed between different cultivation systems and soil depth in controlled horticultural land.

• Korean Journal of Medicinal Crop Science
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.294-302
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• 2016

Background: Crop rotation plays an important role in improving soil chemical properties, minimizing the presence of disease pathogens, and assists in neutralizing autotoxic effects associated with allelochemicals. Methods and Results: Five rotation crops of sudan grass, soybean, peanut, sweet potato, and perilla were cultivated for one year with an aim to reduce yield losses caused by repeated cropping of ginseng. In 2-year-old ginseng grown in the same soil as a previous ginseng crop, stem length and leaf area were reduced by 30%, and root weight per plant was reduced by 56%. Crop rotation resulted in a significant decrease in electrical conductivity, $NO_3$, and $P_2O_5$ content of the soil, whereas organic matter, Ca, Mg, Fe, Cu, and Zn content remained-unchanged. Soil K content was increased following crop rotation with sudan grass and peanut only. Rotation with all alternate crops increased subsequent ginseng aerial plant biomass, whereas root weight per plant significantly increased following crop rotation with perilla only. A significant positive correlation was observed between root rot ration and soil K content, and a significant negative correlation was observed between ginseng root yield and the abundance of actinomycetes. Crop rotation affected the soil microbial community by increasing gram negative microbes, the ratio of aerobic microbes, and total microbial biomass whereas decreases were observed in actinomycetes and the ration of saturated fatty acids. Conclusions: In soil exhibiting crop failure following replanting, crop rotation for one year promoted both soil microbial activity and subsequent ginseng aerial plant biomass, but did not ameliorate the occurrence of root rot disease.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.19 no.spc
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• pp.149-152
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• 2011

To improve the soil condition for no-tillage organic pepper cultivation, four different green manure crops were cultivated. Fertilizer supply was depended on the biomass of the cultivated green manure crops, nitrogen supplies were 314kg in Vicia villosa and 341kg $ha^{-1}$ in Vicia angustifolia. In the microbial community analyzed by phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) method, soil microbe populations were different among the green manure crops and fungi group was increased at Vicia angustifloia and Vicia villosa. The biological ratio indexes of fatty acids in the soils, the ratio of Gram-negative to Gram-positive bacterial PLFA and Ratio of aerobes to anaerobes were high at Vicia hirsute and Vicia tetrasperma suggesting the enrich of the aerobic conditions. The ratio of saturated to unsaturated fatty acids increased at Vicia angustifloia and Vicia villosa suggesting anaerobic conditions. Abundant biomass and uncomposted organic matter, the ratio of fungi to bacteria was increased at Vicia angustifloia and Vicia villosa.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.49 no.5
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• pp.480-488
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• 2016

Soil microbes are widely well known to play an important role for sustainable agriculture in terms of crop healthy cultivation and environmental conservation. In this context, the distributional characteristics of soil microbes according to cropping systems were investigated under rice (R)-rice (R), rice (R)-barley (B)-rice (R), and soybean (S)-barley (B)-soybean (S) cropping condition to get basic informations for sustainable agriculture, where barley was grown for winter, in mid-mountainous loam paddy located at the altitude of 285 m above sea level in Sangju area from 2014 to 2015. Estimating from microbial communities by fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) method, a total biomass of bacteria, actinomycetes, and fungi in R-B-R plot was 37% and 40% higher than that in S-B-S and R-R plots, respectively (p < 0.05). In especial, bacteria and fungi were more in R-B-R plot than those in any other ones. B. japonicum, AMF, and mesophilic Bacillus sp. were also greater in S-B-S plot than those. In the community distribution, however, bacteria and actinomycetes showed comparatively high values in S-B-S plot relative to either R-R or R-B-R plot including rice, in which fungi outstanding. In the correlation between microbial biomass and soil properties changed by the cropping, bacteria was positively correlated with C:N ratio; actinomycetes with exchangeable Ca; fungi with available $P_2O_5$ (p < 0.05). While these microbes showed negative response to water stable aggregates of soil.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.49 no.5
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• pp.621-626
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• 2016

The present study evaluated the variations in soil microbial population of controlled horticultural land used for lettuce (Lactuca sativa) cultivation by their fatty acid methyl ester and chemical properties. We utilized four treatment groups, no treatment (NT), culture medium (CM), Bacillus subtilis S37-2 (KACC 91281P) ${\times}10^6CFU\;mL^{-1}$ (BS1), and Bacillus subtilis $S37-2{\times}10^7CFU\;mL^{-1}$ (BS2) and analyzed these variations throughout the before treatment and harvesting stage. The chemical properties such as pH, organic matter, available phosphate, and electrical conductivity in soils before treatment and harvesting stage showed no significant difference among the treatments. Total numbers of bacteria and microbial biomass C in soil treated with BS1 were larger than those of NT, CM, and BS2, whereas total number of fungi at the harvesting stage was significantly lower in the BS1 soil than in the NT and CM soils (P < 0.05). On basis of leaf length, leaf width, leaf number and leaf weight, the growth characteristics lettuce on the soil treated with BS1 and BS2 was faster than those of NT and CM soils. Yield of lettuce with treated BS1 and BS2 were 35% and 29% more than that of NT, respectively.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.23 no.9
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• pp.1279-1286
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• 2013

Particle size and metal species are important to both soil microbial toxicity and phytotoxicity in the soil ecosystem. The effects of CuO and ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) and microparticles (MPs) on soil microbial toxicity, phytotoxicity, and bioaccumulation in two crops (Cucumis sativus and Zea mays) were estimated in a soil microcosm. In the microcosm system, soil was artificially contaminated with 1,000 mg/kg CuO and ZnO NPs and MPs. After 15 days, we compared the microbial toxicity and phytotoxicity by particle size. In addition, C. sativus and Z. mays were cultivated in soils treated with CuO NPs and ZnO NPs, after which the treatment effects on bioaccumulation were evaluated. NPs were more toxic than MPs to microbes and plants in the soil ecosystem. We found that the soil enzyme activity and plant biomass were inhibited to the greatest extent by CuO NPs. However, in a Biolog test, substrate utilization patterns were more dependent upon metal type than particle size. Another finding indicated that the metal NP uptake amounts of plants depend on the plant species. In the comparison between C. sativus and Z. mays, the accumulation of Cu and Zn by C. sativus was noticeably higher. These findings show that metal oxide NPs may negatively impact soil bacteria and plants. In addition, the accumulation patterns of NPs depend on the plant species.