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Functional Soil Organic Matter Fractions, Microbial Community, and Enzyme Activities in a Mollisol Under 35 Years Manure and Mineral Fertilization

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Abstract

Fertilization is a worldwide practice to maintain and increase crop productivity and improve soil quality in agricultural ecosystems. The interactive mechanisms of long-term fertilization affecting the functional soil organic matter (SOM) fractions, microbial community, and enzyme activities are unclear. We investigated the effects of manure and mineral fertilization on six SOM fractions (non-protected, physically, chemically, biochemically, physical-chemically, and physical-biochemically protected), microbial community structure, and enzyme activities based on a 35-year fertilization experiment. The combined application of manure and mineral fertilizers (NPKM) increased the soil organic carbon (SOC) and total nitrogen (TN) in the biochemically (28.6–43.9%) and physically (108–229%) protected fractions, compared to their content in the unfertilized soil (CK). The total phospholipid fatty acid content, Gram(−) bacteria, and actinomycetes, as well as the activities of α-1,4-glucosidase, β-1,4-N-acetylglucosaminidase, β-1,4-xylosidase, and cellobiohydrolase were highest under NPKM fertilization. The protected SOM fractions (physical, biochemical, physical-chemical, and physical-biochemical) were closely related to microbial community composition (accounting for 67.6% of the variance). Bacteria were sensitive to changes in the physically and biochemically protected fractions, whereas fungi responded more to the changes in the chemically protected fraction. In summary, long-term mineral and organic fertilization has a strong effect on microbial communities and activities through the changes in the functional SOM fractions.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Editor and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments that helped us to greatly improve the manuscript.

Funding

This study is financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41571130041; 31770560) and the Major Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 2017YFA0604803). The publication was supported by the Government Program of Competitive Growth of Kazan Federal University and with the support of the “RUDN University program 5-100.”

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Resources and Environmental Sciences; National Academy of Agriculture Green Development; Key Laboratory of Plant-Soil Interactions, Ministry of Education, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, China

    Fan Yang & Jing Tian

  2. Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Fan Yang, Jing Tian, Huajun Fang & Yang Gao

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

    Fan Yang

  4. National Engineering Laboratory for Improving Quality of Arable Land, Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100081, China

    Minggang Xu

  5. Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development in Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100081, China

    Yilai Lou

  6. Institute of Soil Fertilizer and Environment Resources, Heilongjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Haerbin, 150086, China

    Baoku Zhou

  7. Department of Soil Science of Temperate Ecosystems, Department of Agricultural Soil Science, University of Göttingen, 37077, Göttingen, Germany

    Yakov Kuzyakov

  8. Institute of Environmental Sciences, Kazan Federal University, Kazan, 420049, Russia

    Yakov Kuzyakov

  9. Agro-Technological Institute, RUDN University, Moscow, 117198, Russia

    Yakov Kuzyakov

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  1. Fan Yang
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  2. Jing Tian
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  3. Huajun Fang
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  4. Yang Gao
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  5. Minggang Xu
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  6. Yilai Lou
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  7. Baoku Zhou
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  8. Yakov Kuzyakov
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Correspondence to Jing Tian.

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Yang, F., Tian, J., Fang, H. et al. Functional Soil Organic Matter Fractions, Microbial Community, and Enzyme Activities in a Mollisol Under 35 Years Manure and Mineral Fertilization. J Soil Sci Plant Nutr 19, 430–439 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42729-019-00047-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42729-019-00047-6

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