The intensification of agriculture in recent decades has contributed to soil degradation, and there is growing interest in adopting more sustainable agricultural practices and understanding their impact on soil quality and the soil microbiome. In this master thesis, the influence of long-term tillage (no-till, ploughing) and fertilisation (no fertilisation and fertilisation with mineral, organic, and a combination of fertilisers) on soil organic carbon (Corg) and microbial carbon (Cmic) content, and microbial community composition was investigated. Soils were sampled at four depths (0-1 cm, 0-10 cm, 10-20 cm, and 30-60 cm) in a 21-year field trial conducted by the Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Biotechnology, in the autumn of 2020 after soybean harvest. We found organic carbon accumulation in the top layers of the no-till soils, with a maximum Corg content of 7.6 % at a depth of 0-1 cm of organic fertiliser treatment. At a depth of 0-10 cm, we found a higher Corg content in the soil of the no-till system (the average of all treatments was 3.2 %) compared to ploughing (the average of all treatments was 2.3 %). As a consequence, the soil microbial biomass increased as determined by the chloroform fumigation method and estimated by the amount of total soil DNA. Microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen content and DNA amount were higher in the top soil layers (0-1 cm and 0-10 cm) in the no-till system. The abundance of bacteria, fungi and Crenarchaea was determined by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Bacteria were most abundant throughout the soil profile (the average abundance of the no-till system at a depth of 0-1 cm 7.7 × 109), whereas fungi and Crenarchaeota were less abundant (the average abundance of the no-till system at a depth of 0-1 cm for fungi 3.8×108 and for Crenarchaea 2.7×108). The abundance of micro-organisms decreased with depth. The ratio of bacteria to fungi was narrowest at a depth of 0-1 cm, where we also found significant differences between treatments. Future research needs to investigate microbial community composition at lower taxonomic levels, and it is also important to investigate the relationship between composition and functioning of the soil microbiome.
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