By Claire Loewen
A McGill University study suggests that diversifying crops and replacing annual wheat with a perennial grain could help protect soil health as climate change brings more variable rainfall. The research is published in the journal Applied Soil Ecology.
Researchers tested two approaches at McGill's Emile A. Lods Agronomy Research Farm in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue: growing multiple crops next to each other in alternating rows—one form of a practice known as intercropping—and replacing annual wheat with intermediate wheatgrass, or Kernza, a niche perennial grain used for products like bread and beer but unlike conventional wheat in taste and composition.
Both strategies affected the soil's microbial communities, which play a key role in plant health and nutrient cycling.
The findings show that both intercropping and the perennial system increased beneficial fungi associated with plant roots and changed how microbial species are structured in the soil.
"We found that both intercropping and replacing the annual wheat with the perennial grain ... increased the abundance of a beneficial fungal symbiont," said Deniz Dutton, first author of the study, who completed the research as a master's student in the Department of Natural Resource Science.
Soil microbes are essential for processes such as nutrient cycling, carbon storage and plant resilience. Conventional farming systems that rely on single crops can weaken these microbial communities and make soils more vulnerable to drought and flooding.
The study also revealed that as crop diversity increased, so did variability in microbial communities. The researchers say this variability could help soils adapt over time by ensuring some microbes are suited to changing conditions.
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