Cropping practices can significantly influence the composition and activity of soil microbial communities with consequences to plant growth and production. With the current focus on food security, there is a greater need for the development of sustainable agricultural production systems that harness plant-microbe interactions.
Plant type can affect functional capacity of different groups of biota in the soil surrounding their roots influencing plant nutrition, beneficial symbioses, pests and diseases and overall plant health and crop production. The interaction between different players in the rhizosphere is due to the plethora of carbon and nutritional compounds, root-specific chemical signals and growth regulators that originate from the plant and are modulated by the physico-chemical properties of soils.
A number of plant and environmental factors and management practices can influence the quantity and quality of rhizodeposition and in turn affect the composition of rhizosphere biota communities, microbe-fauna interactions and biological processes.
Plant type and variety-based differences in rhizodeposition and associated changes in rhizosphere microbial diversity and function, e.g. diazotrophs, nitrogen fixation, disease control and plant growth, suggests the possibility for the development of varieties with specific root-microbe interactions targeted for soil type and environment i.e. designer rhizosphere.
The emergence of high resolution molecular approaches has enabled in-depth differentiation of microbial communities as influenced by plant rhizodeposition and modulated by soil factors. This presentation will highlight changes in rhizosphere communities, diversity and function, observed in field experiments in different grain production regions in southern Australia.