Agriculture-friendly microbes prefer conservation tillage

Picture copyright CLEYET-MAREL, INRA

Conservation tillage is any method of soil cultivation that leaves the previous year’s crop residue, such as corn stalks or wheat stubble, on fields before and after planting the next crop, to reduce soil erosion and runoff. Presently, little is known about the effect of conservation tillage on soil microbes. Wang et al. show that conservation tillage increases the amount of bacteria species that are beneficial to crop production.

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