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Nitrogen application increases soil microbial carbon fixation and maize productivity on the semiarid Loess Plateau

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Abstract

Background and aims

Soil autotrophic microorganisms and plant primary production play crucial roles in soil carbon (C) cycling. However, the information remains limited to whether and how nitrogen (N) application influences the contribution of soil microbial C fixation to the soil organic C (SOC) pool.

Methods

We investigated the effects of soil autotrophic bacterial communities on SOC storage and maize yield. A field experiment was conducted with four application rates of urea on the semiarid Loess Plateau, N application at 0 kg ha− 1 (N0), 100 kg ha− 1 (N1), 200 kg ha− 1 (N2), and 300 kg ha− 1 (N3), respectively.

Results

Our results showed that SOC storage and maize yield were significantly increased by N application, but no significant SOC storage difference between N2 and N3 treatments, no further yield increase beyond 200 N kg ha− 1 application was observed. N application significantly impacted soil Calvin-Benson-Bassham (CBB) (cbbL) gene-carrying bacterial communities via changing soil pH, nitrate N, and soil water content. The diversity of soil autotrophic bacterial communities decreased with increasing rate of N application. We detected a high abundance of the autotrophic bacterial dominant genera Xanthobacter, Bradyrhizobium, Aminobacter, and Nitrosospira. The co-occurrence network of autotrophic bacteria contained four distinct modules. Structural equation modeling further indicated that the autotrophic bacterial communities had positive relationships with SOC storage and maize yield.

Conclusions

Taken together, our results highlighted that N application stimulated the activity of soil autotrophic bacterial communities, contributing to an increase in SOC. The increase of SOC under N fertilization can stabilize soil fertility for maize production.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Education science and technology innovation project of Gansu Province (GSSYLXM − 02), the Fostering Foundation for the Excellent Ph.D. Dissertation of Gansu Agricultural University (YB2020002), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31761143004, 41922048), the Innovation Star Project for Excellent Graduate Student of Gansu Province Educational Department (2021CXZX-369), the Department of Science and Technology of Gansu Province (GSPT − 2018 − 56), and the Young Instructor Fund Project of Gansu Agricultural University (GAU-QDFC-2020-03).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Aridland Crop Science, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou, 730070, China

    Jinbin Wang, Junhong Xie, Lingling Li, Zhuzhu Luo & Renzhi Zhang

  2. College of Agronomy, Gansu Agricultural University, 730070, Lanzhou, China

    Jinbin Wang, Junhong Xie & Lingling Li

  3. College of Resource and Environment, Gansu Agricultural University, 730070, Lanzhou, China

    Zhuzhu Luo & Renzhi Zhang

  4. State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 210008, Nanjing, China

    Yuji Jiang

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  1. Jinbin Wang
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  2. Junhong Xie
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  3. Lingling Li
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  4. Zhuzhu Luo
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  5. Renzhi Zhang
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  6. Yuji Jiang
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Contributions

Ling Li and Yuji Jiang conceived the topic. Jinbin Wang, Junhong Xie, Zhuzhu Luo, and Renzhi Zhang performed the experiments. Jinbin Wang analyzed all statistical data. Jinbin Wang and Yuji Jiang wrote the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Lingling Li or Yuji Jiang.

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Wang, J., Xie, J., Li, L. et al. Nitrogen application increases soil microbial carbon fixation and maize productivity on the semiarid Loess Plateau. Plant Soil 488, 9–22 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-022-05457-7

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