Straw input can parallelly influence the bacterial and chemical characteristics of maize rhizosphere

Abstract

The effects of straw input, including three strategies: chopped straw, straw-derived compost and biochar, on bacterial communities and chemical composition in maize rhizosphere were investigated according to a three-year field experiment. Illumina MiSeq sequencing showed that biochar input increased bacterial richness but decreased bacterial diversity in rhizosphere when compared with the results from no straw control. The functional prediction of Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genome pathways confirmed that soil subjected to straw input changed the abundance of microbiomes involved in carbohydrate metabolism significantly. Metabolomics analysis showed that straw input changed the metabolite profile of the rhizosphere soil of maize, which was most evident in the treatment of chopped-straw input. The match between the global metabolic profiles and bacterial distribution patterns was weak by performing Procrustes analysis (m 2 = 0.851, R = 0.386, P < 0.05). However, the associations between the special members of genera, predicted function involved in carbohydrate metabolism, and rhizosphere metabolites, including sugars and organic acid, were significant (P < 0.05).

Stover and biochar can improve soil microbial necromass carbon, and enzymatic transformation at the genetic level

“…Acidobacteria was not the dominant population with respect to the chiA gene community. Our previous study found that Acidobacteria formed the second largest group of bacteria, and stover treatments decreased its abundance (Li et al, 2020). Banerjee et al (2016) also pointed out that Acidobacteria were the keystone taxa during organic matter decomposition in arable soil.…”

“…Sun et al (2015) pointed out that higher bacterial diversity was observed with organic matter than with chemical fertilizer alone. We propose that higher bacterial diversity might be responsible for the increase in the chiA gene diversity, while our study about the response of soil bacterial richness and diversity in the rhizosphere was different with the chiA gene (Li et al, 2020). We should thoroughly study the relationship between the chitinase gene and bacteria in rhizosphere soil and bulk soil.…”

“…The results of the bacterial changes in response to stover incorporation are contradictory to those observed for the chiA gene (Banerjee et al, 2016; Zhao et al, 2019). Li et al (2020) reported that Actinobacteria have a copiotrophic nature, and stover treatments increased the relative abundance of Actinobacteria in rhizosphere soil. Other researchers reported contradictory results regarding the abundance, reproduction rate, community composition, and diversity of soil bacteria in response to stover and biochar (Graber et al, 2010; Liu et al, 2017; Luo et al, 2017; Tian et al, 2016).…”

“…One field experiment with maize stover biochar, compost, and chopped stover was conducted in the spring of 2015. Information on the experiment is described in our previous paper (Li et al, 2020). The experiment was conducted at the National Field Observation and Research Station of Shenyang Agro‐ecosystems in a typical temperate agricultural region of the Liaohe Plain, northeastern China (N41°31′, E123°24′).…”

Humic Acid Improves Greenhouse Tomato Quality and Bacterial Richness in Rhizosphere Soil

“…Short-term fertilizer addition decreased microbial diversity but increased species richness, which was inconstant with former studies. 39 , 40 …”