Soil properties and microbial communities of spring maize filed in response to tillage with straw incorporation and nitrogen fertilization in northeast China

Pengxiang Sui; Ping Tian; Zhengyu Wang; Hongli Lian; Yadong Yang; Ziqi Ma; Ying Jiang; Jinyu Zheng; Hua Qi

doi:10.7717/peerj.13462

Soil properties and microbial communities of spring maize filed in response to tillage with straw incorporation and nitrogen fertilization in northeast China

PeerJ. 2022 May 13:10:e13462. doi: 10.7717/peerj.13462. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Pengxiang Sui^{1

2

3}, Ping Tian¹, Zhengyu Wang¹, Hongli Lian¹, Yadong Yang⁴, Ziqi Ma¹, Ying Jiang¹, Jinyu Zheng^{2

3}, Hua Qi¹

Affiliations

¹ College of Agronomy, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang, China.
² Institute of Agricultural Resources and Environments, Jilin Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Changchun, China.
³ Key Laboratory of Crop Ecophysiology and Farming System in Northeast China, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Changchun, China.
⁴ College of Agronomy and Biotechnology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China.

Abstract

Soil enzymes and microorganisms are both important to maintaining good soil quality and are also sensitive to changes in agricultural management. The individual effects of tillage, straw incorporation and nitrogen (N) fertilization on soil enzymes and microflora have been widely acknowledged, but their interactive effect remains largely unknown. In a 5-year in-situ field study, effects of rotary (RTS) and plow tillage (PTS) practices with straw incorporation combined with three N fertilization levels (0 kg N ha^-1, CK; 187 kg N ha^-1, MN; 337 kg N ha^-1, HN) on soil enzyme activities and microbial communities were assessed. Our results showed that the activities of β-glucosidase (βG), N-acetylglucosaminidase (NAG) and acid phosphatase (APH) were improved in RTS+MN. The bacterial and fungal abundances in RTS+MN and RTS+HN were 1.27-27.51 times higher than those in other treatment groups. However, the bacterial and fungal alpha diversities were enhanced in PTS+MN and PTS+CK compared with other treatments, respectively. Proteobacteria and Basidiomycota were the predominant phylum for the respective bacterial and fungal communities. Moreover, significant interactive effects were found in the fungal community composition, but only minor impacts were observed on the bacterial community composition. Soil water content and penetration resistance contributed more to the soil enzyme activity and microbial community than other soil properties investigated, whereas there was a significant positive correlation between βG and APH activities and microbial abundance. These findings can provide new insights into tillage with straw incorporation and N fertilization on maize cultivation in northeast China.

Keywords: Microbial communities; N fertilization; Soil enzyme activities; Straw incorporation; Tillage practices.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Bacteria / genetics
China
Fertilization
Microbiota* / genetics
Nitrogen / analysis
Soil Microbiology
Soil* / chemistry
Zea mays

Substances

Soil
Nitrogen

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32071976, 31901471), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFD0300103), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2019M661130), and the Science and Technology Program in Liaoning Province of China (2019JH2/10200004). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.