Nitrogen transformations and its underlying microbial communities in differently managed soils under future projected rainfall variability

Summary

Soil microbial communities play a fundamental role in maintaining a broad range of soil functions and ecosystem services. Especially nutrient provisioning to cultivated crops are of prime interest in agricultural contexts in order to maintain the production of food, fibre and fuel for the ever increasing human population. Since Nitrogen (N) is the most limiting nutrient in agroecosystem and it’s cycling and availability is highly dependent on microbial driven processes, we investigated the impact of farming systems on related ecosystem processes and herein involved soil microbial communities. Considering global climate change, also the potential to withstand rainfall variability was assessed.