Eberly, Jed O.Hammontree, Jenni W.Fordyce, Simion I.Jones, Clain A.Carr, Patrick M.2024-07-192024-07-192024-08Eberly, J. O., Hammontree, J. W., Fordyce, S. I., Jones, C. A., & Carr, P. M. (2024). Changes in biological soil health properties in response to increased crop diversity in a dryland wheat-based cropping system. Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis, 55(14), 2140-2156.0010-3624https://scholarworks.montana.edu/handle/1/18685Diversifying wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)-based cropping systems is important for the sustainability of dryland agriculture. Research has focused on the agronomic benefits of increased crop diversity in semi-arid environments, but less is known about the impacts of increased crop diversity on the soil microbial community. This work compared soil health parameters between a continuous wheat crop sequence to a diverse sequence that included pea (Pisum sativum L.), proso millet (Panicum miliaceum L.), safflower (Carthamus tinctorius, L.), and spring wheat. Respiration was higher (p < .005) in the diverse sequence while activity of N-acetyl-β-d-glucosaminidase was lower (p < .05) with a mean rate of 26.3 and 16.3 mg ρ-nitrophenol kg−1 soil h−1 for the continuous wheat and diverse sequences, respectively. The mean net nitrogen mineralized during the growing season was 33.2 ± 2.5 kg ha−1 and was not different between treatments (p > .05). No difference was observed in bacterial alpha diversity, while fungal community diversity was 52% lower in the diverse rotation. The results of this work suggest that specific crops in a rotation may impact microbial processes related to nitrogen mineralization and that the soil fungal community may be more sensitive to changes in crop sequence than the soil bacterial community.en-UScc-by-nchttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/Enzyme assaymicrobial activitymineralizationnitrogennutrient cyclingArticle10.1080/00103624.2024.2345153