ONTARIO GRAIN FARMER RESEARCH 10 Guelph researchers mapped soil microbial communities and the practices that were most beneficial. Tillage practices, fertility treatments and different crop rotations were all part of their analysis. Advances in genome analysis tools are providing a more comprehensive understanding of how microbial communities interact with crops and different production practices, and how farmers could help improve crop profitability. University of Guelph microbiologists looked into soil composition and how farmers could foster the growth of useful microbes for better crops, and environmental resiliency. Headed by soil and environmental microbiology Dr. Kari Dunfield, the research team leveraged long-running crop trials at Elora and Ridgetown to map what microbial communities look like in different agricultural soils in southern Ontario. The now-complete 5-year project compared changes in microbial communities across several cropping systems and has provided yet more evidence that less tillage and greater diversity in the field support healthier communities below ground. “The soil microbiome sometimes gets bundled in with soil health,” Dunfield says. “But soil health is just the tip of an iceberg. It’s an indicator that represents the biological component in your soils. It’s only now we are starting to consistently know what’s in the soil in agricultural systems.” Dunfield says that working in some of the long-term crop trials in Ontario was a huge opportunity from a microbial point of view, because microbial communities constantly change. “In a system where we could really get at what organisms are there consistently with a given crop was really important – especially in Ontario soils and Ontario conditions, because we know it really depends on where you are,” she says. Matt McIntosh Look after your soil microbes Less tillage and greater diversity in the field supports healthier communities below ground Dr. Kari Dunfield (courtesy of Soil at Guelph)
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