ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Terrestrial Microbiology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1637727
This article is part of the Research TopicSoil Microbiome and Agroecosystem MultifunctionalityView all 6 articles
Effects of Different Crop Rotation Patterns on the Growth of Guizhou Sorghum and Rhizosphere Soil Quality: Implications for Agricultural Policy
Provisionally accepted
Manjing Chen1
Jiaqi Shen1,2*Ying Zhao3
Peiyun Xie4Yingying Zhou5Yuwen Jiang1Xiaofeng Deng1Yan Ren1Mingbo Shao1*- 1Institute of Upland Food Crops, Guizhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Guiyang, China
- 2Guizhou University of Finance and Economics School of Public Administration, Guiyang, China
- 3Renhuai Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Zunyi, China
- 4Guizhou Light Industry Vocational and Technical College, Guiyang, China
- 5Guizhou Duyun Liquor Factory Co., Ltd., Duyun, China
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Sorghum, an important crop for food and brewery production, is typically cultivated using monocropping. However, the impact of long-term sorghum monocropping on soil physicochemical properties and microbial communities is poorly elucidated. Hence, this study was conducted to evaluate the effects of different crop rotation patterns on sorghum growth and the soil microenvironment in Guizhou Province, China. Following a randomized block design, the effects of continuous sorghum cropping (SSS), sorghum-rapeseed-sorghum (SRS), and sorghum-stem mustard-sorghum (SMS) rotation patterns on sorghum yield, rhizosphere soil quality, and soil microbial community structure were compared. Compared with the SSS treatment, the SRS and SMS treatments significantly improved the agronomic traits of sorghum as well as the physicochemical traits of soil. Among the treatments, urease and invertase activities were the highest in SRS.Moreover, compared with the SSS treatment, the SRS and SMS treatments significantly altered the composition of the rhizosphere microbial community by reducing the abundance of pathogenic phyla.Furthermore, correlation analysis revealed that soil organic matter, total potassium, available potassium, available phosphorus, and invertase activity are key environmental factors influencing the soil microbial community structure. Therefore, sorghum rotation with other crops, such as rapeseed and stem mustard, can improve the soil microenvironment, regulate the soil microbial community structure, alleviate continuous cropping obstacles, and enhance sorghum quality and yield. This finding highlights the importance of optimizing crop rotation patterns to alleviate continuous cropping obstacles.
Keywords: Sorghum, Continuous cropping obstacle, Crop rotation, soil quality, microbial community, Sorghum yield
Received: 29 May 2025; Accepted: 11 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Chen, Shen, Zhao, Xie, Zhou, Jiang, Deng, Ren and Shao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Jiaqi Shen, Institute of Upland Food Crops, Guizhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Guiyang, China
Mingbo Shao, Institute of Upland Food Crops, Guizhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Guiyang, China
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