The aim of this study was to determine the long-term effects of different tillage systems on some chemical and biological soil properties. The research was carried out in 2011-14 based on a static field experiment set up in 1999 at Brody Research Station of Poznań University of Life Sciences, Poland, in a temperate climate, on Albic Luvisols. Soil samples were collected from under spring barley from two layers: 0-10 cm and 10- 20 cm. The results of this experiment showed that reduced tillage (RT) and no-tillage (NT) increased total carbon, total nitrogen, the number of microorganisms (heterotrophic bacteria, oligotrophic and copiotrophic bacteria, actinobacteria and fungi) and enzymatic activity (dehydrogenases, acid and alkaline phosphatase, urease, protease, and catalase) compared with conventional tillage (CT) – especially in a 0-10 cm layer of soil. This suggests that tillage has a significant impact on soil C cycling through its effects on soil microbial activity.

At present, there is growing consumer interest in Triticum spelta L., which has high nutritional value. This species is recommended for cultivation in organic farming. In this system of agriculture, biofertilizers are an alternative to mineral fertilization. Biofertilizers stimulate plant growth by providing nutrients through the biological fixation of molecular nitrogen from the air or by increasing the availability of insoluble nutrients in the soil and by synthesizing substances that stimulate plant growth. Green manure biomass and root secretions provide growth material for soil microorganisms, and microorganisms return nutrients to the soil and plants through nutrient decomposition and conversion. Considering the many benefits of using biofertilizers and growing cereals with cover crops for green manure in cereal rotations, field research was carried out on an organic farm to evaluate the soil microbes and the amount of biomass from green manures and their follow-up effect on Triticum spelta L. yields using biofertilizers. Two factors were researched: (I) biofertilizers: control object (no biofertilizer), Azotobacter chroococcum + Azospirillum lipoferum Br 17, Arthrobacter agilis + Bacillus megaterium var. phosphaticum, and combined application of atmospheric nitrogen-fixing bacteria with phosphate solubilizing bacteria; (II) green manures: control object (no green manure application), Trifolium pratense L., Trifolium pratense L. + Lolium multiflorum L., and Lolium multiflorum L. The results show that the most favorable abundance of microorganisms determined in the soil after harvesting Hordeum vulgare L. was recorded after the application of biofertilizers containing atmospheric nitrogen-fixing bacteria with phosphate-solubilizing bacteria under a mixture of Trifolium pratense L. with Lolium multiflorum L. Plowing green manure from a mixture of Trifolium pratense L. with Lolium multiflorum L. resulted in an average increase of 39% in grain yield of Triticum spelta L., while the application of a biofertilizer containing Azotobacter chroococcum + Azospirillum lipoferum Br 17 + Arthrobacter agilis + Bacillus megaterium var. phosphaticum resulted in an average increase of 63%. The proposed spelt wheat cultivation technique can be recommended for agricultural practice due to the positive response of grain yield, but it may also be an important direction for further research to reduce the negative impact of agriculture on the environment.

Modern agriculture should limit its degrading impact on the soils, the natural environment, and the climate. No-tillage soil cultivation technologies, which have been in use for many years and are constantly being improved, are a good example of these actions; although, in-depth studies on their impact on the soil microbial community are currently scarce. The aim of our study was to evaluate the effect of cultivation technology on the soil bacterial community to assess differences that can be reflected in the environmental and agricultural functionality, identifying possible bacterial species with ecological properties. In this context, the composition of bacterial communities (at the phyla, order, class, and species levels) was evaluated under different conditions, such as conventional tillage (CT) (plophing), reduced tillage (RT) (stubble cultivator), strip tillage (ST), and no-tillage (direct sowing on stubble and fallow buffer zone of the experimental field), in a horse bean plantation. Metagenomic methods (next generation sequencing technology, NGS) were used to determine the percentage of individual operational taxonomic units (OTUs). Our study showed that no-tillage cultivation technologies, mainly strip and no-tillage methods, had a positive effect on microbiological communities. In fact, key species related to soil fertility and crop yield, such as Gemmatimonas aurantiaca (a microorganism that reduce nitrous oxide, N₂O in soil) and Aeromicrobium ponti (a beneficial species for the soil environment, essential for the proper functioning of the crop agroecosystem), increased in reduced cultivation technologies. These species can determine soil fertility and crop yields, and therefore, they are very important for sustainable and even regenerative agriculture. Further studies of soil samples collected from other crop plantations under different cropping systems may indicate beneficial microbial species that are important for soil fertility.

The research was conducted on an organic farm in Poland in 2019-2022. The purpose of the research was to determine the effect of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria and cover crops plowed as green manure on the biomass, number, and species composition of weeds found in Triticum spelta grown in...

Modern agriculture must reverse its degrading influence on soils, the natural environment, and the climate. No-till soil cultivation technologies, which have been used for many years and are constantly being improved, are an example of such activities. Our research assumes that soil samples taken from a faba bean plantation in the twentieth year of the static field experiment will show differences in the composition of bacterial communities at the level of phylum, orders, classes, and species. The differences would be manifested by the environmental and agricultural functionality of the microorganisms in the soil cultivation system-dependent manner and they would indicate the bacterial species with environment-friendly properties. As a result, five variants of the soil samples were distinguished: 1 – plantless, fallow buffer zone of the field experiment – sample ‘0’, 2 – conventional tillage (ploughing), 3 – reduced tillage (stubble cultivator), 4 – strip tillage,5 – no tillage (direct drilling into stubble). Our study showed that the no-till cultivation technologies, mainly the strip till and no-till methods, applied at the horse bean plantation had a positive influence on microbial communities. The number of OTUs of species such as Gemmatimonas aurantiaca and Aeromicrobium ponti increased. The abundance of these species determines soil fertility and yield of crops. They are also environment and climate friendly, and therefore very important for sustainable or even regenerative agriculture. Further investigations of soil samples collected from another plantation of crops in different tillage systems may indicate functional species of microorganisms which are important for climate change and for the fertility of the soil.