Variation of microbial communities in soil, rhizosphere, and rhizoplane inresponse to crop species, soil type, and crop development

We investigated the influence of plant species, soil type, and plant develo pment time on the shaping of microbial communities in soil and in associati on with roots. The sample group consisted of a total of 32 microcosms in th ree habitats: soil, rhizosphere, and rhizoplane. Communities were represent ed by the patterns of a sequence-specific separation of rRNA target sequenc es. Effects of experimental parameters were classified by a cluster analysi s of pattern similarities. The type of plant species (clover, bean, or alfa lfa) had the greatest effect in plant-associated habitats and also affected soil patterns. Plant development had a minor habitat-dependent effect that was partly obscured by replicate variation. The results stress the applica bility of biased community representations in an analysis of induced variat ion.