Combined application of organic manure and chemical fertilizers stabilizes soil N-cycling microflora

Highlights

● The abundance of N-cycling genes differently responded to NPK application.

● Chemical NPK application greatly altered the N-cycling microbial community structure.

● Soil acidification was the main driver for the variation in the N-cycling microbial community.

● Manure addition was beneficial for stabilizing the N-cycling microbial community.

Abstract

Straw and manure are widely applied to agricultural systems, and greatly shape soil N-cycling microflora. However, we still lack a comprehensive understanding of how these organic materials structure soil N-cycling microbial communities. In this study, metagenomic analysis was performed to investigate the compositional variation in N-cycling microbial communities in a 30-year long-term experiment under five fertilization regimes: no fertilization (Control), chemical fertilization only (NPK), and NPK with wheat straw (NPK + HS), pig manure (NPK + PM), and cow manure (NPK + CM). Long-term NPK application differentially changed N-cycling gene abundance and greatly altered N-cycling microbial community structure. NPK + HS resulted in a similar pattern to NPK in terms of gene abundance and community structure. However, NPK + PM and NPK + CM significantly increased most genes and resulted in a community similar to that of the Control. Further analysis revealed that serious soil acidification caused by long-term NPK fertilization was a major factor for the variation in N-cycling microbial communities. The addition of alkaline manure, rather than wheat straw, stabilized the N-cycling microbial community structure presumably by alleviating soil acidification. These results revealed the strong impact of soil acidification on microbial N-cycling communities and illustrated the possibility of resolving nitrogen-related environmental problems by manipulating pH in acidified agricultural soils.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

microbial nitrogen cycle / metagenomics / long-term fertilization / soil acidification / manure

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Acknowledgments

We thank the staff at the experimental station for the management of the experimental field. The first author, Ruibo Sun, appreciates his soul mate, Jessy, for giving him the sweetest time during the past. This work was supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. XDB40020204) and the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2021YFF1000403).

Electronic supplementary material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.1007/s42832-022-0165-z and is accessible for authorized users.

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