Towards sustainable land-use management: impacts of agroforestry on soil biodiversity and ecosystem services

Anna Šilhánková

Bachelor's thesis

Abstract:

Biodiversity in agricultural landscapes, plays a critical role in sustaining agroecosystems by increasing resilience and promoting ecosystem services. Soil biota, although often overlooked but essential, significantly contribute to soil fertility (Kutílek & Nielsen 2015). Their diversity and abundance are strongly influenced by land-use management and crop selection. Recent studies suggests that agroforestry (AF) holds significant promise as a sustainable land-use management approach, with potential benefits for soil health and productivity. This thesis aims to examine how AF practices influence soil biota diversity, with a specific focus on microbial communities of fungi and bacteria. Utilizing next-generation sequencing, this study compares the diversity of bacterial and fungal communities based on Shannon’s entropy and Pielou’s evenness index across varying land-use systems, including alley cropping AF practice, conventional field (CF) and tree nursery (TN). Specifically, the observed locations were TN, CF and seven distinct locations in the AF, each varying in distance from the tree rows. Six samples were collected for each location. Furthermore, the examination extends to determine how microbial diversity responds to increasing distance from AF tree rows. The findings indicate that bacterial diversity does not significantly differ among the studied locations, while fungal biodiversity increases when the AF system is compared to the TN and CF. However, further study is needed to fully understand the impact of AF on soil biota, including the examination of species composition and time-dependent changes in soil biota.

Keywords

alley cropping, microbial biodiversity, next-generation sequencing, soil bacteria, soil fungi, sustainable agriculture

Jazyk práce: English

Datum vytvoření / odevzdání či podání práce: 20. 4. 2024

Obhajoba závěrečné práce

• Obhajoba proběhla 29. 5. 2024
• Vedúci: Ing. Nikola Teutscherová, Ph.D.
• Oponent: Jakub Houška, Ph.D.

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences

Bachelor programme:
International Cooperation in Agricultural and Rural Development