Published

A KBS LTER graduate student collects soil cores in a prairie strip on the Main Cropping Systems Experiment.
Credit: Kurt Stepnitz

Twenty-plus years of nitrogen fertilization have caused rhizobia in soybeans to evolve toward reduced nitrogen fixation. These evolutionary changes have ecological consequences, as the evolution of reduced cooperation alters soil nitrogen availability. Directed changes to the microbial community, through plant-soil management or added bioinoculants, represents an important frontier for improving cropping system resilience.

 

Learn more

  1. Hamilton, S et al. 2015. The Ecology of Agricultural Landscapes: LongTerm Research on the Path to Sustainability. Oxford University Press.
  2. Weese, DJ et al. 2015. Long-term nitrogen addition causes the evolution of less-cooperative mutualists. Evolution. doi: 10.1111/evo.12594

Contact

Nick Haddad
haddad@kbs.msu.edu

Posted:  July 8, 2020