Soil micro-food web composition determines soil fertility and crop growth

Highlights

	● Microbial biomass nitrogen highlights the importance of diverse microbial communities in nutrient cycling and availability.
	● Complex soil food webs improved soil nutrient availability and soybean growth.
	● Soil sterilization boosts soybean growth, likely by eliminating soil-borne pathogens and pests.

Abstract

Soil fertility is one of the key determinants of agricultural productivity. Soil food webs play an important role in driving soil nutrient cycling and plant health. However, it is poorly known how the soil food web composition and complexity affect plant growth and soil fertility. In this study, soil microorganisms and nematodes isolated from two soil types (i.e., calcareous soil and red soil) and two land use types (i.e., corn-soybean cultivation and natural grass-shrubland) were used to sequentially establish four soil micro-food webs (FW1, FW2, FW3, and FW4) with increasing levels of community complexity based on food web complexity. The four micro-food webs were inoculated to sterilized soils which were then planted with soybeans for three months in a pot experiment under ambient environment. The sterilized soil without food web inoculation was employed as control (C) and unsterilized soil with its original food web was also regarded as a treatment (US) in the experiment. The effects of soil micro-food web complexity on soil nutrient and soybean growth were explored. The results showed that soil total nitrogen (TN) and phosphorus (TP), soil microbial biomasses, and plant nitrogen and phosphorus were generally higher in the four food web inoculation treatments than in the control or unsterilized soil. Surprisingly, the original soil food web treatment (i.e., unsterilized soil) had lower soil or soybean nutrient than the no food web treatment (i.e., sterilized soil). In addition, the complexity of inoculated food webs was positively correlated with soil TN, TP, and total potassium (TK). These results suggest that soil micro-food web complexity is an important driver of soil fertility and affects crop growth. Particularly, complex soil micro-food web maintains higher soil fertility and crop growth. This study provides solid evidence of the roles of soil food web in controlling ecosystem services; and the findings could provide a better understanding of the soil food web structure and soil fertility relationships.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

network complexity / microbes and nematodes / soil fertility / soil community inoculation / structure and function relationship

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2022YFF1300704); the National Natural Science Foundations of China (Grant Nos. U21A20189, 42377284, and 42207339); the Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province (Grant No. 2023JJ41046); the Science and Technology Innovation Program of Hunan Province (Grant No. 2023RC1076); and the Guangxi Bagui Young Scholars Special Funding given to Jie Zhao.

Electronic supplementary material

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