Poster: Biology & Disease Mgmt: Integrated Pest Mgmt
407-P
Temporal variation of soil biota in fumigated and non-fumigated potato fields
T. SMART (1), B. Geary (1) (1) Brigham Young University, U.S.A.
Soil biota plays a prominent role in the regulation of soilborne pathogen incidence and severity. Thus, microbial community structure is of particular interest in commercial potato production as fumigation practices have been shown to alter soil biota. Despite long-term use of fumigation in potato production, there is still a limited understanding of soil biota and pathogen recovery and regeneration. In this study, soil cores were taken from neighboring fumigated and non-fumigated potato fields located in five different states: Washington, Oregon, Idaho, North Dakota, and Minnesota. Each core was assessed for pathogen incidence and severity and changes in soil biota over a temporal scale. Fungal and bacterial soil microbial diversity was assessed using meta-barcoded primers on an Illumina MiSeq platform. Our results demonstrate that fumigation creates disparity between pathogen populations and other soil biota which causes disequilibrium when compared to non-fumigation. Future research may establish predictive models in evaluating pathogen incidence and severity as part of an integrated disease management system that seeks to improve sustainable soil health for high-quality potato production.