Impact of No-Tillage and Conventional Tillage Systems on Soil Microbial Communities
Table 4
PLFA biomarkers and ratios† in no-till (NT) and conventional-till (CT) soils*.
Tillage treatment
Depth (cm)
Fungi/bacteria
G+/G− bacteria†
Fungi
Bacteria
AM fungi
Actinobacteria
(mol%)
(nmol g−1)
(mol%)
(nmol g−1)
(mol%)
(nmol g−1)
(mol%)
(nmol g−1)
NT
0–5
0.08a
1.48a
3.97a
4.47a
53.1a
50.9a
3.89a
4.32a
2.18a
2.09a
NT
5–15
0.03b
1.76a
2.29b
0.76b
56.8b
21.3b
2.93b
1.13bc
2.61a
1.11b
CT
0–5
0.07a
1.54a
3.87a
1.41b
53.0a
20.9b
3.27ab
1.17b
2.41a
0.99bc
CT
5–15
0.04b
1.84a
2.00b
0.68b
57.0b
16.9c
2.83b
0.83c
2.90a
0.77c
†G+/G− bacteria: ratio of Gram-positive to Gram-negative bacterial PLFA.
*Means () followed by the same letter in a column are not significantly different (Tukey, ).