Abstract
With the increasing use of chemical fertilizers, negative environmental impacts have greatly increased as a result from agricultural fields. The fungus Trichoderma viride used as a biofertilizer can efficiently reduce nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from subtropical tea fields in southern China. In this paper, it was further found that T. viride biofertilizer could alleviate nitrogen (N) leaching in tea fields. Gross N leaching was 1.51 kg ha−1 year−1 with no external fertilizer input, but when 225 kg N ha−1 year−1was applied, it increased to 12.38 kg ha−1 year−1 using T. viride biofertilizer but 53.46 kg ha−1 year−1 using urea. Stepwise linear regression analysis identified the factors responsible for N leaching to be soil nitrate concentration and soil interflow, simulated here using the water balance simulation model (WaSiM-ETH). Finally, mass-scale production of T. viride biofertilizer from waste reutilization using sweet potato starch wastewater and rice straw was found to be cost-effective and feasible. These procedures could be considered a best management practice to reduce N leaching from tea fields in subtropical areas of central China and to reduce pollution from other agricultural waste products.
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This work was supported by the National Science Fund Projects (Nos. 41371266 and 31670507), the Innovation in Cross-functional Team Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. 2015), the Key Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. ZDRW-ZS-2016-5), and the Key State Science and Technology Program of China (No. 2015ZX07206-006).
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Xu, S., Zhou, S., Ma, S. et al. Manipulation of nitrogen leaching from tea field soil using a Trichoderma viride biofertilizer. Environ Sci Pollut Res 24, 27833–27842 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-0355-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-0355-x