Bioindication of desalination in grassed soil by microbiome diversity

Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education Novosibirsk State Agrarian University, 160, Dobrolyubov str., Novosibirsk, 630039, Russia

^* Corresponding author: Riclog@mail.ru

Abstract

Vast areas of Western Siberia (about 40%) are occupied by saline soils. Solonetzic agricultural lands are mainly used for growing perennial grasses - phytomeliorants. To increase the yield of fodder crops on solonetz lands, specialists of the Siberian Research Institute of Fodder Crops in the 80s of the last century developed phytomeliorative crop rotations. The article considers the effect of grassing phytomeliorative crop rotations with a mixture of brome (Bromus inermis Leyss.) and alfalfa (Medicago varia Mart.) on the microflora of meadow solonetzes (hydromorphic) (Gleyic Solonetz Albic) (for 13 years). It is shown that post-rotational grassing led to a significant desalinization of the upper soil horizon and a decrease in its alkalinity, as well as to an improvement in the water-air regime of solonetzes. Long-term cultivation of fodder crop rotations and subsequent grassing formed a specific soil microbiome, characterized by taxonomic diversity of microorganisms and a greater proportion of copiotrophs in the dominant phyla, which indirectly indicates an increase in the carbon content and nitrogen available to plants in the phytomeliorated solonetz.