Poster Session: Ecology and Epidemiology - Rhizosphere

522-P

Comparison of soil microbial community between organically and conventionally managed golf courses using pyrosequencing-based metagenomics.
E. ALLAN (1), D. Manter (2), G. Jung (1)
(1) University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, U.S.A.; (2) USDA Agricultural Research Service, Fort Collins, CO, U.S.A.

Soil microbes influence water retention, nutrient capacity, and influence plant health through competition/antagonism with potential pathogens, upregulation of plant immune systems, and symbiotic relationships with plants, e.g. mycorrhizal fungi in nutrient acquisition. Increased biodiversity seems to support these relationships and organic management practices increase biodiversity. We used next generation pyrosequencing of 16S and 18S rDNA to characterize the bacterial and fungal populations of an organic and two conventional golf courses to determine how these management practices affect soil microbes. Soil cores were taken from the rough, fairway, and putting green. There were more observed bacterial species , greater species diversity, and greater species evenness on the conventional courses than the organic course. The organic course had higher fungal species abundance. The putting greens had lower fungal abundance and fewer observed fungal species than the fairways and roughs. Although all of the courses and locations were dominated by alphaproteobacteria; the composition of the alphaproteobacteria was significantly different among courses and the locations. The results of this study will increase understanding of how organic management influences golf course soils and will help direct future studies to understand how they affect turf health and the best way to utilize them in disease control.