Abstract
BACKGROUND: Urban agriculture represents an opportunity to alleviate some of the issues related with the increased urbanization and global human population. Productive rooftops offer a promising solution that combines food production and recycling of organic waste, while providing green spaces without consuming urban soils. In addition, harnessing natural resources, including plant-associated microbiomes, is proposed as an effective approach to sustainably improve farm productivity and food quality. However, little attention has been given to the importance of selecting the appropriate organic substrate to enhance plant-microbe interactions and rooftop farming in urban areas. Here, we study the influence of different organic substrates on tomato, and its associated microbial community, in an open-air rooftop farming setup. Specifically, we evaluate combinations of peat with a high quantity (50% of volume) of compost derived from different feedstocks (seaweed biomass or coffee byproducts), and how biochar-blending alters these compositions. RESULTS: We found that substrate properties were mainly defined by the compost feedstocks. Biochar blending had a minor influence on substrate composition, although it enhanced tomato yield. Overall, alternative substrates differed from peat mainly by showing higher phosphorus content, pH, and electric conductivity. Similarly, compost feedstock had a greater impact on microbial communities than biochar blending. Even though alternative substrates presented higher bacterial diversity than peat, the taxonomic composition was similar across alternative substrates, reflecting the functional redundancy of the bacterial communities. In addition, we identified specific microbes associated with each compost feedstock. The abundance of bacteria and fungi associated with composted seaweed biomass was positively associated with tomato yield. Among them, bacterial genera like Acidibacter, Altererythrobacter, Amaricoccus, Luteitalea, Microvirga, Pedomicrobium or Pseudorhodoplanes stood out presenting strong correlations with tomato yield. CONCLUSIONS: The studied substrates influenced tomato growth and yield directly via their chemical and physical properties and by influencing microbial community composition. Thus, our results reveal the importance of using the appropriate organic substrate for enhancing the effectiveness of rooftop agriculture while increasing microbial diversity in urban unexploited areas.
Abstract from the paper’s OpenAlex record; open copy licensed cc-by. Read at the source ↗
The text the model read, with the source record’s inline markup (italics, sub- and superscripts) rendered and its character entities decoded; quote offsets refer to the raw text.
Claims 11
Claim · model-written summary
Compost feedstock mainly determined substrate properties.
- Taxon
- tomato
Solanum lycopersicumt0 - Treatment
- compost feedstockse0
- Outcome
- substrate propertiese0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“tomato”
e0“substrate properties were mainly defined by the compost feedstocks.”
Claim · model-written summary
Biochar had a minor effect on substrate composition.
- Taxon
- tomatoSolanum lycopersicumt0
- Treatment
- Biochar blendinge0
- Outcome
- substrate compositione0
Not reportedComparatorDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“tomato”
e0“Biochar blending had a minor influence on substrate composition”
Claim · model-written summary
Biochar blending enhanced tomato yield.
- Taxon
- tomatoSolanum lycopersicume0
- Treatment
- Biochar blendinge0
- Outcome
- tomato yielde0
- Direction
- enhancede0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Biochar blending had a minor influence on substrate composition, although it enhanced tomato yield.”
Claim · model-written summary
Alternative substrates had higher phosphorus content, pH and electrical conductivity than peat.
- Taxon
- tomatoSolanum lycopersicumt0
- Treatment
- alternative substratese0
- Outcome
- phosphorus content, pH, and electric conductivitye0
- Direction
- highere0
- Comparator
- peate0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“tomato”
e0“alternative substrates differed from peat mainly by showing higher phosphorus content, pH, and electric conductivity.”
Claim · model-written summary
Compost feedstock affected microbial communities more than biochar blending.
- Taxon
- tomatoSolanum lycopersicumt0
- Outcome
- microbial communitiese0
- Direction
- greatere0
- Comparator
- biochar blendinge0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“tomato”
e0“compost feedstock had a greater impact on microbial communities than biochar blending.”
Claim · model-written summary
Alternative substrates had greater bacterial diversity than peat.
- Taxon
- tomatoSolanum lycopersicumt0
- Treatment
- alternative substratese0
- Outcome
- bacterial diversitye0
- Direction
- highere0
- Comparator
- peate0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“tomato”
e0“alternative substrates presented higher bacterial diversity than peat”
Claim · model-written summary
Bacterial taxonomic composition was similar among alternative substrates.
- Taxon
- tomatoSolanum lycopersicumt0
- Outcome
- taxonomic compositione0
- Qualifier
- alternative substratese0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“tomato”
e0“the taxonomic composition was similar across alternative substrates”
Claim · model-written summary
Specific microbes were associated with each compost feedstock.
- Taxon
- tomatoSolanum lycopersicumt0
- Treatment
- compost feedstocke0
- Outcome
- specific microbese0
Not reportedDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“tomato”
e0“we identified specific microbes associated with each compost feedstock.”
Claim · model-written summary
Abundance of seaweed-compost-associated bacteria and fungi correlated positively with tomato yield.
- Taxon
- tomatoSolanum lycopersicume0
- Outcome
- tomato yielde0
- Direction
- positively associatede0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“The abundance of bacteria and fungi associated with composted seaweed biomass was positively associated with tomato yield.”
Claim · model-written summary
Seven named bacterial genera had strong correlations with tomato yield.
- Taxon
- tomatoSolanum lycopersicume0
- Interactor
- AcidibacterAcidibactere0symbiont
- Outcome
- tomato yielde0
- Qualifier
- Altererythrobacter, Amaricoccus, Luteitalea, Microvirga, Pedomicrobium or Pseudorhodoplanese0
Not reportedDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“bacterial genera like Acidibacter, Altererythrobacter, Amaricoccus, Luteitalea, Microvirga, Pedomicrobium or Pseudorhodoplanes stood out presenting strong correlations with tomato yield.”
Claim · model-written summary
Substrate chemical and physical properties and microbial communities were proposed to influence tomato growth and yield.
- Taxon
- tomatoSolanum lycopersicume0
- Treatment
- studied substratese0
- Outcome
- tomato growth and yielde0
- Qualifier
- chemical and physical propertiese0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“The studied substrates influenced tomato growth and yield directly via their chemical and physical properties and by influencing microbial community composition.”
The same questions in other papers
biochar · yield · Solanum lycopersicum (tomato)Results differ
50 papers in the same direction as this paper · 5 in the opposite direction
- positive
- no effect
- no effect
52 papers more in this group
See all 56 papers →growing medium · soil: biology · Solanum lycopersicum (tomato)Positive and negative results
5 papers in the same direction as this paper · 1 in the opposite direction
- negative
- positive
- positive
3 papers more in this group
See all 7 papers →Claims are grouped by organism, treatment and what was measured or targeted. A paper counts as positive when any of its claims in the group is positive.