Effects of Microbial Fertilizer on Soil Fertility and Alfalfa Rhizosphere Microbiota in Alpine Grassland

Abstract

Chemical fertilizers are gradually being replaced with new biological fertilizers, which can improve the soil and soil microorganisms. In this experiment, leguminous forage (Medicago sativa cv. Beilin 201) was used as the research object. By measuring alfalfa root systems and soil properties and using high-throughput sequencing technology, we investigated the effect of biological (rhizobial) fertilizer at different concentrations on soil fertility and alfalfa rhizosphere microbiota in alpine grasslands. The results demonstrated that the treatment with biofertilizer significantly reduced total nitrogen (TN) and total organic carbon (TOC) content in soils, increased root densities, and significantly increased the number of root nodules in alfalfa. There were differences in the response of rhizosphere microorganisms to different concentrations of biofertilizer, and the treatment with biofertilizer led to pronounced changes in the microbial community structure. The abundance of beneficial bacteria such as Rhizobium, Arthrobacter, and Pseudomonas was significantly increased. The Pearson correlation analysis showed that soil moisture and soil conductivity were significantly positively correlated with the observed richness of rhizosphere microbiota (p < 0.05). Meanwhile, Actinobacteria showed a significantly positive correlation with nitrate, TOC, and TN (p < 0.01). These results indicated that biofertilizers enhanced soil fertility and altered the rhizosphere microbiota of alfalfa in alpine grassland.

The effect of beneficial microorganism as biofertilizer application in hydroponic-grown tomato

“…This study illustrates that soil benefit microorganisms in biofertilizer influences the weight and grade of tomatoes yield although not all correlated strongly with tomato fruit size and weight. A study conducted by Zhao et al (2022) demonstrated that the application of biofertilizers can improve the physical and chemical properties of the soil compared to the control treatment. Some soil chemical properties were significantly different (p < 0.05) due to the biofertilizer gradient.…”

Germination of alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) seeds in Desert soil after fertilization with raw and digested animal manure

“…Many studies have revealed that organic fertilizers and biofertilizers, like animal manure and effective microbial strains, can enhance soil fertility and productivity (Ye et al, 2020;Du et al, 2022;Esmaeilian et al, 2022;Zhao et al, 2022). This means that using organic fertilizers can be a great alternative to chemical fertilizers.…”