Organic amendments alleviate early defoliation and increase fruit yield by altering assembly patterns and of microbial communities and enzymatic activities in sandy pear (Pyrus pyrifolia)

Yalong Kang; Xiangrui An; Yanwei Ma; Shaomin Zeng; Shangtao Jiang; Wenli Wu; Changyan Xie; Zhonghua Wang; Caixia Dong; Yangchun Xu; Qirong Shen

doi:10.1186/s13568-021-01322-5

Organic amendments alleviate early defoliation and increase fruit yield by altering assembly patterns and of microbial communities and enzymatic activities in sandy pear (Pyrus pyrifolia)

AMB Express. 2021 Dec 8;11(1):164. doi: 10.1186/s13568-021-01322-5.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Jiangsu Provincial Key Lab for Organic Solid Waste Utilization, National Engineering Research Center for Organic-Based Fertilizers, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Solid Organic Waster Resource Utilization, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095, China.
² Fruit Research Institute, Research Centre for Engineering Technology of Fujian Deciduous Fruits, Fujian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Fuzhou, 350013, China.
³ The Research Center of Agricultural Resources Environment and Soil Fertilizer, Huaian Academy of Agricultural Sciencess, Huaian, 223001, China.
⁴ Institute of Pomology, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing, 210014, China.
⁵ Jiangsu Provincial Key Lab for Organic Solid Waste Utilization, National Engineering Research Center for Organic-Based Fertilizers, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Solid Organic Waster Resource Utilization, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095, China. cxdong@njau.edu.cn.

Abstract

Severe early defoliation has become an important factor restricting the development of the pear industry in southern China. However, the assembly patterns of microbial communities and their functional activities in response to the application of bioorganic fertilizer (BIO) or humic acid (HA) in southern China's pear orchards remain poorly understood, particularly the impact on the early defoliation of the trees. We conducted a 3-year field experiment (2017-2019) in an 18-year-old 'Cuiguan' pear orchard. Four fertilization schemes were tested: local custom fertilization as control (CK), CK plus HA (CK-HA), BIO, and BIO plus HA (BIO-HA). Results showed that BIO and BIO-HA application decreased the early defoliation rate by 50-60%, and increased pear yield by 40% compared with the CK and CK-HA treatments. The BIO and BIO-HA application significantly improved soil pH, available nutrient content, total enzyme activity and ecosystem multifunctionality, and also changed the structure of soil bacterial and fungal communities. The genus Acidothermus was positively correlated with the early defoliation rate, while the genus Rhodanobacter was negatively correlated. Additionally, random forest models revealed that the early defoliation rate could be best explained by soil pH, ammonium content, available phosphorus, and total enzyme activity. In conclusion, application of BIO or BIO mixed with HA could have assembled distinct microbial communities and increased total enzyme activity, leading to significant improvement of soil physicochemical traits. The increased availability of soil nutrient thus changed leaf nutrient concentrations and alleviated the early defoliation rate of pear trees in acid red soil in southern China.

Keywords: Acid red soil; Bioorganic fertilizer; Co-occurrence network; Early defoliation rate; Humic acid; Pear tree; Soil microbial activities; Yield.

Abstract

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