Abstract
Purpose
Reductive soil disinfestation (RSD) has been widely applied to improve soil degradation, enhancing vegetable N uptake and productivity. However, its effects on interactions between vegetable N uptake and soil gross N transformation remain unclear.
Methods
Two degraded vegetable soils were treated with RSD and 15N tracing pot experiments were conducted to quantify the effects of RSD on N cycling in vegetable-soil systems.
Results
Vegetable NH4+ and NO3− uptake rates were 1.0–6.5 times higher following RSD than CK, while soil gross N mineralization rates (M) ranged from 0.83–13.00 mg N kg−1 d−1, and were significantly higher than the CK (0.21–8.71 mg N kg−1 d−1). Meanwhile, autotropic nitrification rate (ONH4) increased by 1.7–4.2 following RSD, while NH4+ immobilization rates (INH4) were significantly inhibited by RSD in the presence of planting. This induced a decrease in (ONH4 + INH4)/M, and increases in NH4+ retention times and production rates of soil NO3− following RSD. In addition, RSD improved the overall quality of the degraded soils (increasing the pH, and decreasing EC and NO3− contents as well as pathogen abundance), further promoting vegetable N uptake.
Conclusion
RSD promoted vegetable N uptake by regulating soil gross N transformation rates and improving the quality of degraded vegetable soil. However, NO3− production rates were enhanced following RSD, increasing the risk of NO3− leaching and gaseous N losses. N fertilizer management under RSD therefore requires further attention.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 41830642), the Postgraduate Research and Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province (KYCX21_1332), and the “Double World-Classes”: Development in Geography Project. The study was carried out as part of the IAEA-funded coordinated research project, “Minimizing farming impacts on climate change by enhancing carbon and nitrogen capture and storage in Agro-Ecosystems (D1.50.16)”, and was carried out in close collaboration with the German Science Foundation research unit DASIM (FOR 2337).
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Dan, X., He, M., Chen, S. et al. Reductive soil disinfestation promotes vegetable N uptake by regulating soil gross N transformation and improving the quality of degraded soil. Plant Soil 498, 147–160 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-022-05683-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-022-05683-z