Abstract
Aims
Mycorrhizae and root exudates have been considered the two important pathways for nitrogen (N) transfer from legume to non-legume plants. The present study aimed to investigate contribution of the relative importance of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and root exudates in short-term N transfer.
Methods
A field experiment was conducted to explore N transfer from alfalfa to maize under two different N application levels using 15N leaf labeling.
Results
N transfer amount ranged from 7 to 10 mg N plant−1 from alfalfa to maize and significantly decreased (by 11%–22%) with N fertilizer application. Intercropping of 4 rows of maize and 6 rows of alfalfa with 30 cm intra-row spacing (IMA43) was the optimal intercropping mode, which increased N transfer, total N uptake and yield by 18%, 15% and 11%, respectively. The relative importance of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and root exudates on N transfer was dependent on soil N availability. Under no N addition, hyphal length density (HLD) of rhizosphere soil explained the largest significant amount (50%) of the variability in N transfer and crop yield. However, root exudates explained 77% of the variability in N transfer and crop yields with N fertilizer application.
Conclusions
Our findings highlighted that N transfer is reliant more on arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi than root exudates in N-deficient soil, whereas root exudates play a more important role in N-fertilized soil.
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Acknowledgments
We are grateful to Professor Zed Rengel for invaluable advice and English improvement on the manuscript. This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31670446, 31471945, 31870436, U1803110), Human Resources and Social Security Department of Jilin Province (2016-28), Key Science and Technology Development Program of Jilin Province (20180201073NY), the National Key Basic Research Program of China (2016YFC0500703), and Ministry of Ecological Environment Biodiversity Observation and Assessment Project (8-2-5-11-2).
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Zhang, H., Wang, X., Gao, Y. et al. Short-term N transfer from alfalfa to maize is dependent more on arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi than root exudates in N deficient soil. Plant Soil 446, 23–41 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-019-04333-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-019-04333-1