Ecological Infrastructures among greenhouses: Revegetation and soil quality

Abstract

Crops under indoor agriculture are extremely vulnerable to pests. It has been evidenced the role of functional biodiversity in pest control by using natural pest enemies. Directly linked to these assumptions have emerged the concept of Ecological Infrastructures, patches of semi-natural habitats distributed throughout greenhouses providing shelter habitats for pest natural enemies. However, implantation of Ecological Infrastructures in degraded soils -such as those around Almeria greenhouses- is not a simple task since most of them are a mix of layers derived from the needed land movements for building greenhouses. In this work, we evaluated the effect of plant revegetation on functionality and diversity of bacteria, as drivers of food web structure. Revegetation increased microbial potential functionality and total bacterial biomass and diversity in a degraded soil. Analysis of the soil bacterial community using 16S rRNA gene sequencing showed distinct microbiota profiles depending on the plant species, which drove soil nutrient stoichiometry and then bacterial copiotrophic and oligotrophic categories. Predictions of bacteria-dependent functions evidenced the functional redundancy of groups, suggesting the potential provision of related ecosystem services in all the studied soils. Since feedbacks between the aboveground and belowground ecosystem processes are critical in Ecological Infrastructures functionality, selection of plants-ameliorating soil should be considered.