Nitrogen (N) is an essential element for plant productivity; hence, it is abundantly applied to the soil in the form of organic or chemical fertilizers, which consequently have a negative impact on the environment. Therefore, the main objective of our study was to investigate the structure and richness of the soil mycobiome in response to reduced nitrogen fertilization under two cropping systems: plowing (P) and no-till (NT). Moreover, the scope of the study perfectly falls into the EU "From Field to Table" strategy, which recommends a 20 % reduction of nitrogen fertilization of agricultural soils by 2030. In our study, the samples were collected twice during a single growing season: before maize sowing (without fertilization) and after harvesting the crop (four different fertilization rates). The mycobiome structure was identified based on the next generation sequencing (NGS) technique. Overall, our research has proved that the cropping system is important in terms of the formation of the fungal mycobiome structure and relative abundance. In addition, we confirmed that soil properties have a significant impact on fungal communities. We determined that a 20 % lower nitrogen fertilization rate (92.0 kg N ha-1) had a positive effect on the abundance of fungal communities. Moreover, the highest biodiversity at each of the taxonomic levels tested (phylum, class, genus) in the NT system and at the class and genus levels in the P system was also evidenced at the 20 % lower N fertilization rate. We also recommended potential indicators confirming the positive impact of reduced fertilization in two cropping systems: plowing - Epicoccum, Metarhizium, Mycosphaerella, and Paraconiothyrium and no-till - Peziza, Podospora, Metarhizium, Trechispora, and Umbelopsis.
Keywords: Biodiversity; Maize monoculture; No-till system; Plowing system; UE strategy.
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