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Soil microbial biomass and bacterial and fungal community structures responses to long-term fertilization in paddy soils

  • SOILS, SEC 2 • GLOBAL CHANGE, ENVIRON RISK ASSESS, SUSTAINABLE LAND USE • RESEARCH ARTICLE
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Journal of Soils and Sediments Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Long-term fertilization can influence soil biological properties and relevant soil ecological processes with implications for sustainable agriculture. This study determined the effects of long-term (>25 years) no fertilizer (CK), chemical fertilizers (NPK) and NPK combined with rice straw residues (NPKS) on soil bacterial and fungal community structures and corresponding changes in soil quality.

Materials and methods

Soil samples were collected from a long-term field site in Wangcheng County established in 1981 in subtropical China between mid summer and early autumn of 2009. Terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) and the real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (real-time qPCR) of bacterial and fungal community and microbial biomass (MB-C, -N and -P) were analyzed.

Results and discussion

Redundancy analysis of the T-RFLP data indicated that fertilization management modified and selected microbial populations. Of the measured soil physiochemical properties, soil organic carbon was the most dominant factors influencing bacterial and fungal communities. The bacterial and fungal diversity and abundance all showed increasing trends over time (>25 years) coupling with the increasing in SOC, total N, available N, total P, and Olsen P in the fertilized soils. Compared to chemical fertilizer, NPKS resulted in the greater richness and biodiversity of the total microbial community, soil organic C, total N, MB-C, -N and -P. The high biodiversity of microbial populations in NPKS was a clear indication of good soil quality, and also indicated higher substrate use efficiency and better soil nutrient supplementation. Otherwise, unfertilized treatment may have a soil P limitation as indicated by the high soil microbial biomass N: P ratio.

Conclusion

Our results suggest that NPKS could be recommended as a method of increasing the sustainability of paddy soil ecosystems.

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Acknowledgments

This study was jointly supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41271279; 41090283), International S&T cooperation program of China (2011DFA30770), Open Fund from State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau (10501–1213) and .the CAS/SAFEA International Partnership Program for Creative Research Teams (KZCX2-YW-T07; 20100491005–8).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Agro-ecological Processes in Subtropical Region, Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mapoling, Changsha, 410125, Hunan, China

    Hongzhao Yuan, Tida Ge, Ping Zhou, Shoulong Liu, Hanhua Zhu, Chengli Tong & Jinshui Wu

  2. Horticulture & Landscape College, Hunan Agricultural University, Hunan, 410128, China

    Ziying Zou

  3. State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, Institute of Water and Soil Conservation, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Water Resources, Yangling, 712100, China

    Tida Ge

  4. School of Environment, Natural Resources & Geography, Bangor University, Bangor, Gwynedd, LL57 2UW, UK

    Paula Roberts

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  1. Hongzhao Yuan
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  2. Tida Ge
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  3. Ping Zhou
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  4. Shoulong Liu
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  5. Paula Roberts
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  6. Hanhua Zhu
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  8. Chengli Tong
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Correspondence to Tida Ge or Jinshui Wu.

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Yuan, H., Ge, T., Zhou, P. et al. Soil microbial biomass and bacterial and fungal community structures responses to long-term fertilization in paddy soils. J Soils Sediments 13, 877–886 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-013-0664-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-013-0664-8

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