Long-term continuously monocropped peanut significantly disturbed the balance of soil fungal communities

Balancing soil microbial diversity and abundance is critical to sustaining soil health, and understanding the dynamics of soil microbes in a monocropping system can help determine how continuous monocropping practices induce soil sickness mediated by microorganisms. This study used previously constructed gradient continuous monocropping plots and four varieties with different monocropping responses were investigated. The feedback responses of their soil fungal communities to short-term and long-term continuous monocropping were tracked using high-throughput sequencing techniques. The analyses indicated that soil samples from 1 and 2 year monocropped plots were grouped into one class, and samples from the 11 and 12 year plots were grouped into another, regardless of variety. At the species level, the F. solani, Fusarium oxysporum, Neocosmospora striata, Acrophialophora levis, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus corrugatus, Thielavia hyrcaniae, Emericellopsis minima, and Scedosporium aurantiacum taxa showed significantly increased abundances in the long-term monocropping libraries compared to the short-term cropping libraries. In contrast, Talaromyces flavus, Talaromyces purpureogenus, Mortierella alpina, Paranamyces uniporus, and Volutella citrinella decreased in the long-term monocropping libraries compared to the short-term libraries. This study, combined with our previous study, showed that fungal community structure was significantly affected by the length of the monocropping period, but peanut variety and growth stages were less important. The increase in pathogen abundances and the decrease in beneficial fungi abundances seem to be the main cause for the yield decline and poor growth of long-term monocultured peanut. Simplification of fungal community diversity could also contribute to peanut soil sickness under long-term monocropping. Additionally, the different responses of peanut varieties to monocropping may be related to variations in their microbial community structure.