ARS | Publication request: Effect of poultry litter, manure and inorganic fertilizers on bacterial communities of pasture and cropped soils at the J. Phil Campbell, Sr., Natural Resource Concervaton Center, Georgia

Submitted to: ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: May 10, 2006
Publication Date: November 12, 2006
Citation: Kamlesh, J., Williams, N., Franzluebbers, A.J., Jenkins, M., Endale, D.M., Coleman, D.C., Whitman, W.B. 2006. Effect of poultry litter, manure and inorganic fertilizers on bacterial communities of pasture and cropped soils at the J. Phil Campbell, Sr., Natural Resource Concervaton Center, Georgia. ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meetings, November 12-16, 2006, Indianapolis, Indiana. CDROM.

Technical Abstract: Soil is one of the largest reservoirs of prokaryotes in the biosphere, and may contain on the order of 2.6 x 1029 cells worldwide or five percent of all the prokaryotic cells on earth. The prokaryotic diversity in soil is also enormous, with some theoretical estimates suggesting that typical soil communities contain 3,000-8,000 species. Agriculture is one of most important human activities that depends upon soil. While agriculture is well known to affect the activities of the soil prokaryotic communities, the affects on prokaryotic diversity are not well described. In these studies, molecular methods are used to examine the bacterial communities in pasture and cropped soil. DNA is extracted from soil. The bacterial 16S rRNA genes are amplified in low cycle number PCR, cloned, and sequenced. The composition and diversity of the community are then analyzed by RDPquery, LIBSHUFF, and other methods. To examine the affects of organic and inorganic fertilizer treatment on the bacterial communities, seven treatments on Typic Kanhapludults soils at the J. Phil Campbell, Sr., Natural Resource Conservation Center in Watkinsville, Georgia, were examined. Four treatments include pastures that were established in Coastal bermudagrass in 1991 and have received either inorganic or broiler litter fertilization since 1994. For each type of fertilization, pastures have either been grazed by cattle or left unharvested. Two treatments are cropped fields that have received either inorganic or broiler litter fertilization since 1991. The control is a neighboring forest that has not been utilized for agriculture since the Civil War. This treatment arrangement allows us to discern the effects on soil biological diversity from (i) land use with and without manure inputs, (ii) poultry manure applied to crop and pasture lands, and (iii) the combined effects of cattle and poultry manure in pasture land.