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Symbiotic nitrogen fixation and soil N availability under legume crops in an arid environment

  • SOILS, SEC 2 • GLOBAL CHANGE, ENVIRON RISK ASSESS, SUSTAINABLE LAND USE • RESEARCH ARTICLE
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Abstract

Purpose

Legume crops often present an important option to maintain and improve soil nitrogen (N) quality and fertility in a dryland agroecosystem. However, the work on the integral assessment of the symbiotic N2 fixation (Nfix) and their effects on soil N availability under field conditions is scare.

Materials and methods

Five treatments consisted of legumes (capello woolly pod vetch and field pea), two non-legume crops (Saia oat and Indian mustard), and a nil-crop treatment as control (CK) in southeastern Australia to investigate the effects of legume crops on the amount of Nfix, which was estimated using a 15N natural abundance technique, and soil N pools, microbial biomass, microbial quotient, soil basal respiration, metabolic quotient (qCO2), net N mineralization rates, and substrate-induced respiration (SIR) using the MicroResp method.

Results and discussion

Crop 15N natural abundances under legume crops were lower, and the amounts of Nfix in the aboveground vetch and pea biomass were 42.1 and 37.3 kg ha−1, respectively, compared with the reference crops (oat and mustard). The crop treatments had higher soil pH, and lower moisture, NH +4 –N and NO −3 –N contents compared with the CK. The NO −3 –N was predominant form of soil inorganic N across the treatments. Although no significant differences were found in microbial biomass carbon (C) and N across the treatments, legume crops had lower soil basal respiration and metabolic quotient, indicating that soil organic carbon was less easily accessible to microorganisms in comparison with the non-legume crops. In addition, no pronounced differences were found in soil available N pools (NH +4 –N, NO −3 –N, and soil soluble organic N) among the crop treatments. However, legume crops had lower soil net N mineralization rates and SIR, indicating lower soil potential N availability compared with the non-legume crops. These results showed that the amounts of Nfix by legume crops did not have immediate effects on soil N availability.

Conclusions

Compared with non-legume crops, legume crops exerted less negative effects on the soil microbial properties in this dry environment. However, the amount of Nfix under legume crops did not immediately increase soil N availability over the growing season.

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Acknowledgments

This work was funded by the Australian Research Council, Griffith University, Industry and Investment NSW, and Grains Research and Development Corporation. We thank Mr. Eric Koetz for assistance in the field experiments, soil and biomass sampling.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Futures Centre, Griffith School of Environment, Griffith University, Nathan, 4111, Australia

    Xiaoqi Zhou, Xian Liu, Yichao Rui, Chengrong Chen & Zhihong Xu

  2. School of Biomolecular and Physical Sciences, Griffith University, Nathan, 4111, Australia

    Xiaoqi Zhou, Yichao Rui & Zhihong Xu

  3. EH Graham Centre for Agricultural Innovation, Wagga Wagga Agricultural Institute, Industry and Investment NSW, Pine Gully Road, Wagga Wagga, NSW2650, Australia

    Hanwen Wu

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  1. Xiaoqi Zhou
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  2. Xian Liu
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  3. Yichao Rui
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  4. Chengrong Chen
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  5. Hanwen Wu
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  6. Zhihong Xu
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Correspondence to Xiaoqi Zhou.

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Responsible editor: Hailong Wang

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Zhou, X., Liu, X., Rui, Y. et al. Symbiotic nitrogen fixation and soil N availability under legume crops in an arid environment. J Soils Sediments 11, 762–770 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-011-0353-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-011-0353-4

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