Skip to main content
Dryad

Data from: Long-term agricultural management does not alter the evolution of a soybean-rhizobium mutualism

Cite this dataset

Schmidt, Jennifer E.; Weese, Dylan J.; Lau, Jennifer A. (2017). Data from: Long-term agricultural management does not alter the evolution of a soybean-rhizobium mutualism [Dataset]. Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.1h3k8

Abstract

Leguminous crops, like soybeans, often rely on biologically fixed nitrogen via their symbiosis with rhizobia rather than synthetic nitrogen inputs. However, agricultural management practices may influence the effectiveness of biological nitrogen fixation. While the ecological effects of agricultural management on rhizobia have received some attention, the evolutionary effects have been neglected in comparison. Resource mutualism theory predicts that evolutionary effects are likely, however. Both fertilization and tillage are predicted to cause the evolution of rhizobia that provide fewer growth benefits to plant hosts and fix less nitrogen. This study capitalized on an LTER (Long Term Ecological Research) experiment that manipulated agricultural management practices in a corn-soybean-wheat row crop system for 24 years to investigate whether four different management practices (conventional, no-till, low chemical input, and certified organic) cause rhizobia populations to evolve to become more or less cooperative. We found little evidence that 24 years of varying management practices affect the net growth benefits rhizobia provide to soybeans, although soybean plants inoculated with soils collected from conventional treatments tended to have lower biological nitrogen fixation rates than plants inoculated with soils from the no-till, low input, and organic management treatments. These findings suggest that rhizobia will continue to provide adequate growth benefits to leguminous crops in the future, even in intensively managed systems.

Usage notes

Funding

National Science Foundation, Award: DEB-1257756, DEB-1027253, DBI-0939454

Location

Midwestern USA