Significant alteration of soil bacterial communities and organic carbon decomposition by different long‐term fertilization management conditions of extremely low‐productivity arable soil inSouthChina

Abstract

Different fertilization managements of red soil, a kind of Ferralic Cambisol, strongly affected the soil properties and associated microbial communities. The association of the soil microbial community and functionality with long-term fertilization management in the unique low-productivity red soil ecosystem is important for both soil microbial ecology and agricultural production. Here, 454 pyrosequencing analysis of 16S recombinant ribonucleic acid genes and GeoChip4-NimbleGen-based functional gene analysis were used to study the soil bacterial community composition and functional genes involved in soil organic carbon degradation. Long-term nitrogen-containing chemical fertilization-induced soil acidification and fertility decline and significantly altered the soil bacterial community, whereas long-term organic fertilization and fallow management improved the soil quality and maintained the bacterial diversity. Short-term quicklime remediation of the acidified soils did not change the bacterial communities. Organic fertilization and fallow management supported eutrophic ecosystems, in which copiotrophic taxa increased in relative abundance and have a higher intensity of labile-C-degrading genes. However, long-term nitrogen-containing chemical fertilization treatments supported oligotrophic ecosystems, in which oligotrophic taxa increased in relative abundance and have a higher intensity of recalcitrant-C-degrading genes but a lower intensity of labile-C-degrading genes. Quicklime application increased the relative abundance of copiotrophic taxa and crop production, although these effects were utterly inadequate. This study provides insights into the interaction of soil bacterial communities, soil functionality and long-term fertilization management in the red soil ecosystem; these insights are important for improving the fertility of unique low-productivity red soil.

Long‐term nitrogen fertilization decreases bacterial diversity and favors the growth of Actinobacteria and Proteobacteria in agro‐ecosystems across the globe

“…Our result is in agreement with the previous hypotheses that stresses how soil acidification caused by N input resulted in the pH of a variety of soils changing toward the acidic range (most soils with long‐term N input have pH <7), which can limit the growth of a wide range of bacterial species. The significantly positive relationship between bacterial diversity and total organic C following N input (Figure ) indicates that C availability was an important driver of bacterial diversity (Xun et al., ). When N was combined with P and K, soil organic C rather than pH was the dominant factor determining bacterial diversity (Figure ).…”

“…Long‐term fertilization has also been shown to change microbial community composition (Fanin, Hättenschwiler, Schimann, & Fromin, ; Zhen et al., ), and these changes were either determined by the carbon (C) and/or N availability (Ramirez, Lauber, Knight, Bradford, & Fierer, ) or soil pH (Rousk et al., ) changed by N input. In addition, long‐term fertilization can both increase (Zhou et al., ) and decrease (Xun et al., ) the relative abundance of some copiotrophic bacteria, but had adverse effects on the abundance of some oligotrophic bacteria. These inconsistent patterns are attributed to differences in soil type, management regime, crop type, fertilizer application rate, and other biotic and abiotic factors (Hartmann, Frey, Mayer, Mäder, & Widmer, ; Lopes et al., ; Lupwayi, Clayton, O'Donovan, & Grant, ).…”

Functional Diversity of Soil Bacteria from Organic Agro Ecosystem

“…Most functional groups involving nutrient related metabolism and recycling at significantly high abundance in organic amended soil. Changes in soil environmental conditions exert strong effects on microbial diversity, phylotype composition and ecosystem function (Xun et al, 2016).…”

“…Other organic amendment benefits are soil stability and buffering capacity (Ling et al, 2016), increase in soil carbon stocks (Xie et al, 2014) and improvement in soil structure and water retention (Yu et al, 2012), soil enzyme activities (Bowles et al, 2014;Kotroczo et al, 2014), and that they simultaneously provides maintenance of soil health (Chaparro et al, 2012) and suppression of soil-borne diseases (Qiu et al, 2012) Diverse types of long-term fertilization management at the study site exert significantly different effects on soil physical and chemical properties (Xun et al, 2016). In the long run organic farming system emerges as a sustainable adaptive agricultural practice that is less dependent on external high inputs and maintains the productive agro ecosystem that will meet our food and nutritional requirements.…”

Influence of biodiversity and iron availability on soil peroxide: Implications for soil carbon stabilization and storage

“…Specifically, fertilization regimes alter microbial communities (Wen et al, 2018;Xun et al, 2016), soil pH (Guo et al, 2010), and mobilize iron (Xiao et al, 2016;Yu et al, 2017), which further affect the free radical reaction. Specifically, fertilization regimes alter microbial communities (Wen et al, 2018;Xun et al, 2016), soil pH (Guo et al, 2010), and mobilize iron (Xiao et al, 2016;Yu et al, 2017), which further affect the free radical reaction.…”