The diversity of microbial community and function varied in response to different agricultural residues composting

Abstract

Microbial activities are the dynamic core in the soil nutrient cycle. To improve the knowledges about the responses of soil microbial community structure and potential function to long-term cover crops practice. The co-occurrence patterns of soil microbial community structure and functional genes were evaluated using 16SrRNA, ITS and metagenomic technique in 13 years cover crops of orchard grass (OG, Dactylis glomerata L.) with high C/N and white clover (WC, Trifolium repens L.) with low C/N. Conventional tillage (CT) was control. The experiment was implemented in an apple orchard located on the Loess Plateau, China, from 2006 to 2018. We also measured soil physicochemical properties and enzyme activities related to carbon and nitrogen cycling. The conclusions showed that the dominant bacterial phyla were Actinobacteria 27.68% in OG treatment and Proteobacteria 25.89% in WC treatment. Organic matter inputs stimulated growth of the phyla of Actinobacteria, Firmicutes, Chloroflexi, Ascomycota and genera of Bacillus, Blastococcus, Streptomyces and Penicillium. Interestingly, the OG and WC treatments promoted the fungal and bacterial alpha-diversity compared to CT treatment, respectively. In addition, compared to CT treatment, OG treatment was beneficial to the increase of C-cycle enzyme activity, while WC treatment tended to increase the N-cycle enzyme activity. Notably, compared to CT treatment, they both enriched carbon fixation and cycle pathways genes, while WC treatment increased the nitrogen metabolism pathway genes. Moreover, OG treatment was more conducive to the enrichment of carbohydrate enzymes genes involved in the hydrolysis of cellulose and hemicellulose compared to WC treatment. Overall, different quality of plant residues stimulated the specific expressions of soil microbial community structure and function. Long-term planted white clover was effective strategy to improve soil quality.

Keywords: Apple orchard; Cover crops; Metagenome functions; Microbial community; Natural compost.