| ABSTRACT Intercropping tree legumes with forage grasses in a silvopastoral system can avoid pasture degradation benefiting the soil. In such a system, nitrogen (N) is supplied by symbiosis between legumes and bacteria. However, the pasture quality determines the action of free-living nitrogen-fixing bacteria, which possess nifH genes, which encode nitrogenase enzyme. Ammonium-oxidizing bacteria (AOB), involved in the nitrification step, can be evaluated by specific regions of the 16S rRNA corresponding to AOB. Thus, we investigated the influence of the introduction of tree legumes into a silvopastoral system on the community structure and abundance of total bacteria, diazotrophic bacteria and ammonium-oxidizing bacteria by DGGE (denaturing gradient gel... |
