Relationships between Soil Organic Status and Microbial Community Density and Genetic Structure in Two Agricultural Soils Submitted to Various Types of Organic Management

The effects of soil organic management on indigenous microorganisms were studied by comparing mulching straw (S), conifer compost (CC), and conifer bark (CB) as well as grass landing with grass (G), clover (Cl), and fescue (F) in a silty–clay soil (Mâcon), and by incorporating vine shoot (VS) and single and double doses of farmyard manure (FM) and mushroom manure (MM) in a calcareous sandy soil (Chinon). Soil physicochemical and microbial characteristics were assessed at each site at two depths by sampling at 0–5 and 5–20 cm for the Mâcon site and 0–10 and 10–20 cm for the Chinon site. Changes in the quantity of soil organic matter (SOM), through an increase in Corg and Norg contents, and in its quality, through modifications in the C/N and humic acid/fulvic acid ratios, were essentially recorded at the surface layer of treated plots with differential magnitudes according to the inputs and soil type. Quantitative modifications in microbial communities were assessed by means of C-biomass measurements and resulted in an increase in microbial densities fitted with the increase of Corg and Norg contents. However, the deduced C incorporation in microbial biomass was negatively correlated with the C/N ratio, demonstrating a strong influence of the type of organic management on the rate of microbial processes. Qualitative modifications in microbial communities were evaluated by the characterization of the genetic structure of bacterial and fungal communities from DNA directly extracted from the soil, using bacterial and fungal automated ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis. Organic amendments led to changes in the bacterial and fungal communities of both sites. However, the magnitude and the specificity of these changes were different between sites, organic amendments, and microorganisms targeted, revealing that the impact of organic management is dependent on the soil and organic input types as well as on the particular ecology of microorganisms. A co-inertia analysis was performed to specify the role of the quantity and quality of SOM on the modifications of the genetic structure. A significant costructure was only observed for Mâcon plots at 0–5 cm between the bacterial genetic structure and the SOM characteristics, demonstrating the influence of the relative amount of the different humic substances (humic and fulvic acids) on microbial composition.