Organic Farming Enhances Diversity and Recruits Beneficial Soil Fungal Groups in Traditional Banana Plantations.

This study investigates the impact of organic (OF) and conventional farming (CF) on soil fungal communities in banana monoculture plantations on Madeira Island. We hypothesized that OF promotes beneficial fungal groups over harmful ones, sustaining soil health. Soil samples were collected from six plantations (three OF and three CF) for ITS amplicon sequencing to assess fungal diversity.

Variations in the structure and function of the soil fungal communities in the traditional cropping systems from Madeira Island.

Agricultural soils are responsible for ecological functions and services that include primary production of food, fiber and fuel, nutrient cycling, carbon cycling and storage, water infiltration and purification, among others. Fungi are important drivers of most of those ecosystem services. Given the importance of fungi in agricultural soils, in this study, we aimed to characterize and analyse the changes of the soil fungal communities of three cropping systems from Madeira Island, where family farming is predominant, and investigate the response of fungi and its functional groups to soil physicochemical properties.

Microorganism community structure: A characterisation of agrosystems from Madeira Archipelago.

Microbial diversity profoundly influences soil ecosystem functions, making it vital to monitor community dynamics to comprehend its structure. Our study focused on six agrosystems in Madeira Archipelago, analysing bacteria, archaea, fungi and AMF through classical microbiology and molecular techniques. Despite distinct edaphoclimatic conditions and management practices, bacterial structures exhibited similarities, with Alphaproteobacteria at 18%-20%, Bacilli at 11%-18% and Clostridia at 9%-14%.