Fungi in Danish soils under organic and conventional farming

Fungal abundance showed large variations within all three farming systems and this variability reduced the possibility to obtain general conclusions on fungal composition in soils under different farming systems. This was illustrated by the results on total propagule numbers of filamentous fungi and yeasts. Penicillium spp. and Gliocladium roseum were more abundant under organic than conventional farming, while Trichoderma spp. were most abundant in conventionally farmed soils with synthetic fertilisers. These results were not altered after adjusting for possible differences in basic soil properties like total C and N, extractable P, CEC, base saturation and soil density. The paper discusses whether the differences in fungal abundance are characteristics of a farming system itself or associated with certain management factors being more prevalent in one farming system than the other.