SOIL MICROBIOLOGY The Bacterial Community Structure and Dynamics of Carbon and Nitrogen when Maize (Zea mays L.) and Its Neutral Detergent Fibre Were Added to Soil from Zimbabwe with Contrasting Management Practices Magali De la Cruz-Barrón 1 & Alejandra Cruz-Mendoza 1 & Yendi E. Navarro–Noya 2 & Victor M. Ruiz-Valdiviezo 3 & Daniel Ortíz-Gutiérrez 1 & Daniel A. Ramírez-Villanueva 1 & Marco Luna-Guido 1 & Cristian Thierfelder 4 & Patrick C. Wall 4 & Nele Verhulst 4 & Bram Govaerts 4 & Luc Dendooven 1 Received: 4 January 2016 /Accepted: 21 June 2016 # Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016 Abstract Water infiltration, soil carbon content, aggregate sta- bility and yields increased in conservation agriculture practices compared to conventionally ploughed control treatments at the Henderson research station near Mazowe (Zimbabwe). How these changes in soil characteristics affect the bacterial com- munity structure and the bacteria involved in the degradation of applied organic material remains unanswered. Soil was sam- pled from three agricultural systems at Henderson, i.e. (1) con- ventional mouldboard ploughing with continuous maize (con- ventional tillage), (2) direct seeding with a Fitarelli jab planter and continuous maize (direct seeding with continuous maize) and (3) direct seeding with a Fitarelli jab planter with rotation of maize sunn hemp (direct seeding with crop rotation). Soil was amended with young maize plants or their neutral deter- gent fibre (NDF) and incubated aerobically for 56 days, while C and N mineralization and the bacterial community structure were monitored. Bacillus (Bacillales), Micrococcaceae ( Actinomycetales ) and phylotypes belonging to the Pseudomonadales were first degraders of the applied maize plants. At day 3, Streptomyces ( Actinomycetales ), Chitinophagaceae ([ Saprospirales ]) and Dyella (Xanthomonadales) participated in the degradation of the ap- plied maize and at day 7 Oxalobacteraceae (Burkholderiales). Phylotypes belonging to Halomonas (Oceanospirillales) were the first degraders of NDF and were replaced by Phenylobacterium (Caulobacterales) and phylotypes belong- ing to Pseudomonadales at day 3. Afterwards, similar bacterial groups were favoured by application of NDF as they were by the application of maize plants, but there were also clear dif- ferences. Phylotypes belonging to the Micrococcaceae and Bacillus did not participate in the degradation of NDF or its metabolic products, while phylotypes belonging to the Acidobacteriaceae participated in the degradation of NDF but not in that of maize plants. It was found that agricultural practices had a limited effect on the bacterial community struc- ture, but application of organic material altered it substantially. Keywords Conventional mouldboard ploughing . Direct seeding . Maize/sunn hemp crop rotation . Soil bacterial community Introduction The agricultural yields are small in most parts of southern Africa due to low soil water holding capacity, large areas with inherently poor sandy soils, degradation and low soil fertility as a result of many years of tillage-based cultivation without appropriate return of organic carbon [1, 2]. Maize yields on smallholder. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00248-016-0807-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Luc Dendooven dendooven@me.com 1 Laboratory of Soil Ecology, ABACUS, Cinvestav, Mexico City, Mexico 2 Cátedras CONACYT—Universidad Autónoma de Tlaxcala, Av. Universidad 1, C.P., 90062 Tlaxcala, Mexico 3 Instituto Tecnológico de Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Mexico 4 International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Apdo, Postal 6-641, 06600 Mexico D. F, Mexico Microb Ecol DOI 10.1007/s00248-016-0807-8