## 4 Discussion
The observed suppressiveness differed according to the considered pathogen, i.e., the microbiome of the soil acts in a certain way towards a given pathogen and does not necessarily suppress another pathogen, although some of the studied soils could suppress all tested pathogens [24]. The heat maps generated showing the suppressiveness between _Fusarium_ species are more similar to each other than to the map generated for the suppressiveness of _Stencocarpella_. Additionally, the map showing the suppressiveness of _Stencocarpella_ spp. and other pathogens does not always match with the concentration of _Stencocarpella_ spp. inoculum (Figure 4). The suppressive soils to _Stencaperella maydis_ is an important indication of the lower pathogen inoculum level of _Stencocarpella_ spp., but other disease management practices that do not result in suppressive soils are also resulting in the lower pathogen inoculum level (Table 1), and this may be related to the frequency into which the corn is planted within the season and considering maize is the only host of the pathogen not having maize and/or lower maize stubble would result in lower pathogen inoculum. Furthermore, if no pathogen is present, there is a lower chance of selecting for an antagonistic microbial community [27]. The maize yield was also not necessarily explained by the _Stenccarpella_ spp. inoculum concentration, suppressiveness of the soil to the different stubble-borne pathogens, or environmental conditions. Although all these factors are reported to be related to maize yield, since each grower undertakes a different combination of the factors, different yields may be obtained. In the maps, it is not possible to clearly determine the relationships between the survival of _Stencaperella_ spp. and maize yield, maize production, or temperature (Figure 4). However, it seems that there are trends among the survival of _Stencocarpella_ spp. and the soil suppressiveness, altitude, and precipitation. In areas where more _Stencocarpella_ spp. DNA was found, the soil suppressiveness levels were low or absent; this result corroborates the hypothesis that soil suppressiveness can reduce the survival of _Stencocarpella_ spp. Areas with high altitudes had higher occurrences of _Stencarpella_ spp. than areas with low altitudes (Figure 4). In [28], when comparing the map classes of _Stencocarpella_ spp. survival and precipitation, they concluded that high precipitation favored the survival of _Stencocarpella_ spp. [12]. For the integrated management of _Stenccarpella_ ssp. in areas where stubble with possibly different inoculum levels are present, farmers use a specific tool to apply fungicide. However, [29] found that the application of fungicide did not consistently reduce white ear rot or improve yield when working with different fungicide spray programs at three different maize growth stages. This failure of fungicides in the management of the disease implies the importance of reducing the inoculum levels of the pathogen in maize stubble [2]. Additionally, glyphosate-resistant, overwintering volunteer maize seedlings [30], which are frequently encountered throughout the year in tropical agricultural fields, represent _Stencocarpella_ spp. reservoirs that add to the one already found in the stubble with the advantage of lower competition since many are microorganisms able to colonize the dead plant debris, though fewer have the ability to colonize the live plant. Therefore, we propose that the distribution of soils that are suppressive to stubble-borne pathogens in tropical soils and _Stencocarpella_ inoculum are not necessarily distributed according to the maize growing region or environmental conditions but are more likely to be related to the adopted crop management practices. Although crop rotation and no-till systems were most frequently associated with suppressive soils, these cannot be taken as defaults since there were exceptions and other factors governing both pathogen survival and build-up in the offseason that need to be further dissected.