Long-term potato planting causes continuous cropping obstacles, and crop rotation is an effective way to solve this problem. This study aims to explore the effects of rye-potato rotation and continuous potato cropping on soil physical and chemical properties and microbial community structure. In this study, soil samples were collected in five stages of rye-potato rotation and continuous potato cropping to determine the physical and chemical properties and enzyme activities of the soil. Highthroughput sequencing was used to analyze the soil microbial community structure of the two cultivation methods. The results showed that the content of soil organic matter (OM) was significantly higher in the rye-potato crop rotation (RC group) than the continuous cropping (SC group) at all five periods (the before sowing (P = 0.016, percentage = 42.04%), seedling (P = 0.0003, percentage = 65.36%), flowering (P = 0.044, percentage = 55.91%), maturity (P = 0.002, percentage = 66.85%), and after-harvest (P = 0.033, percentage = 53.91%) periods). The alkaline nitrogen (AN) content in the RC group was also significantly higher than the SC group during the five periods (before sowing: P = 0.003, seedling: P = 0.014, flowering: P = 0.003, maturity: P = 0.008, after-harvest: P = 0.031), and increased by 36.39% at the seedling period and 42.29% at the after-harvest. The pH of the RC group was significantly higher than the SC group during the four periods (before sowing: P = 0.008, seedling: P = 0.027, flowering: P = 0.0001, and after-harvest: P = 0.002), except for the maturity period. The high-throughput sequencing showed that the bacterial Shannon indices of the RC group were significantly (P = 0.000, P = 0.004, P = 0.003, P = 0.001, P = 0.001) higher than those of the SC group during the five periods. The fungal Shannon index of the RC group was significantly (P = 0.017, P = 0.014, P = 0.011) higher than the SC group before sowing, seedling, and after harvest. Potentially beneficial bacterial phyla (Actinobacteria and Acidobacteria) were significantly enriched, while potentially pathogenic fungi such as Fusarium and Alternaria were significantly decreased. Specifically, the relative abundance of Acidobacteria significantly increased (P = 0.006, P = 0.020, P = 0.007, P = 0.019, P = 0.002 ) than the SC group during the five periods. The relative abundance of Actinobacteria significantly increased (P = 0.018, P = 0.034, P = 0.031) during the flowering, maturity, and after-harvest periods. The relative abundance of the pathogenic fungi Fusarium i n t he R C g roup s ignificantly (P = 0.007, P = 0.014, P = 0.002, P = 0.049, P = 0.046) decreased compared to the SC group d uring t he fi ve p eriods. T he relative abundance of the pathogenic fungus Alternaria in the RC group significantly (P = 0.0006, P = 0.004, P = 0.040, P = 0.010, P = 0.003) decreased compared to the SC group during the five periods.
It can be shown that the community structure of bacteria and fungi significantly changes with ryepotato crop rotation compared with continuous potato cropping. Rye-potato rotation could significantly change the physical and chemical properties of the soil and the structure of the microbial community. The beneficial bacteria Actinobacteria and Acidobacteria were significantly enriched, while the pathogenic Fusarium and Alternaria were significantly decreased. This work preliminarily described the soil physical and chemical properties and microbial community changes in rye-potato rotation, which provided a theoretical basis for solving the obstacles of continuous potato cropping.