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Synergistic effects of humic acid and phosphate fertilizer facilitate root proliferation and phosphorus uptake in low-fertility soil

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Abstract

Background and aims

Humic acid-enhanced phosphate fertilizer (HAP) is an efficient, widely used fertilizer in China produced by incorporating trace amounts of humic acid (HA) into conventional phosphate fertilizer (CP). However, the mechanism of its increased efficiency has remained unclear, limiting its optimization.

Methods

Maize (Zea mays L. cv ZD 958) was cultivated in root boxes to evaluate the effects of localized HAP, CP, or HA on biomass production, phosphorus (P) uptake, distribution of roots and available P in soil, and activity of C-acquiring and P-acquiring enzymes. Meanwhile, the effects of HAP, CP, and HA in fertosphere were isolated through their uniform application in confined growth tubes and quantifying root traits.

Results

HAP significantly increased available P content and soil area with high P content, and elevated the ratio of soil C- and P-acquiring enzyme activity. Total maize biomass and root distribution area treated with localized HAP were 12.9% and 29.7% higher than that with local CP application, and root biomass was positively correlated with soil available P. Uniform HAP supply significantly increased the maize biomass and P uptake compared to CP uniform treatments, and the biomass and P uptake were highly correlated with root length. HA alone had no impact on above indices.

Conclusions

The presence of HA in HAP increased the area and strength of P supply, and P in HAP guaranteed the adequate nutrient supply for maize enabling HA to stimulate growth. Thus, efficacy of HAP was resulted from the synergistic effects of HA and P fertilizer.

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Data availability

Available on request.

Code availability

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Key Technologies R&D Program of China during the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016YFD0200402).

Funding

The National Key Technologies R&D Program of China during the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016YFD0200402).

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Author notes

  1. Jianyuan Jing and Shuiqin Zhang contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Plant Nutrition and Fertilizer, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100081, China

    Jianyuan Jing, Shuiqin Zhang, Liang Yuan, Yanting Li, Yingqiang Zhang & Bingqiang Zhao

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  1. Jianyuan Jing
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Contributions

Bingqiang Zhao conceived and designed the study; Jianyuan Jing and Shuiqin Zhang conducted the experiment and finished the main manuscript; Liang Yuan and Yanting Li contributed to data interpretation; Yingqiang Zhang provided aids for the experiment. All authors were involved in revising the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Bingqiang Zhao.

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Jing, J., Zhang, S., Yuan, L. et al. Synergistic effects of humic acid and phosphate fertilizer facilitate root proliferation and phosphorus uptake in low-fertility soil. Plant Soil 478, 491–503 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-022-05486-2

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