Abstract
Beginning with the centralization of young tea (Yt) to encourage low branch growth, subsequent light pruning (LP) and deep skiffing (DS) techniques are employed to promote branch spread, ensuring an ideal leaf area index and manageable plucking height. This study investigates the effects of LP and DS compared to Yt on soil biota, a previously unexplored topic. Soil samples from Yt, LP, and DS sites within the Rajgarh Tea Estate in Assam, India, were analyzed for standard parameters and metagenomic DNA using Illumina sequencing. While all samples exhibited a clay loam texture with minimal parameter variation, significant variations in soil phyla abundance were observed. Acidobacteria dominated across all samples, but linear discriminant analysis revealed distinct phyla compositions. At the genus level, Geobacter, Verticiella, and Glaciihabitans were most abundant in S11, S7, and S9 samples, respectively. However, the relative abundance of phyla in the soil samples from Yt, LP, and DS sites varies significantly. But the difference in bacterial community at genus level resolution was not significant at p value 0.05 level. These findings indicate that pruning and skiffing primarily impact on the relative abundance of soil phyla, not microbial diversity. Understanding the soil microbiota in relation to tea cultivation practices through metagenomics can pave the way for developing new microbial consortia for an integrated crop management system in tea cultivation.