Dataset Information

Long-Term Nitrogen Fertilization Elevates the Activity and Abundance of Nitrifying and Denitrifying Microbial Communities in an Upland Soil: Implications for Nitrogen Loss From Intensive Agricultural Systems.

ABSTRACT: The continuous use of nitrogen (N) fertilizers to increase soil fertility and crop productivity often results in unexpected environmental effects and N losses through biological processes, such as nitrification and denitrification. In this study, multidisciplinary approaches were employed to assess the effects of N fertilization in a long-term (~20 years) field experiment in which a fertilizer gradient (0, 200, 400, and 600 kg N ha-1 yr-1) was applied in a winter wheat-summer maize rotation cropping system in the North China Plain, one of the most intensive agricultural regions in China. The potential nitrification/denitrification rates, bacterial community structure, and abundances of functional microbial communities involved in key processes of the N cycle were assessed during both the summer maize (SM) and winter wheat (WW) seasons. Long-term N fertilization resulted in a decrease in soil pH and an increase in soil organic matter (OM), total N and total carbon concentrations. Potential nitrification/denitrification and the abundances of corresponding functional N cycling genes were positively correlated with the fertilization intensity. High-throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene revealed that the increased fertilization intensity caused a significant decrease of bacterial diversity in SM season, while changed the microbial community composition such as increasing the Bacteroidetes abundance and decreasing Acidobacteria abundance in both SM and WW seasons. The alteration of soil properties markedly correlated with the variation in microbial structure, as soil pH and OM were the most predominant factors affecting the microbial structure in the SM and WW seasons, respectively. Furthermore, consistently with the results of functional gene quantification, functional prediction of microbial communities based on 16S rRNA sequence data also revealed that the abundances of the key nitrificaiton/denitrification groups were elevated by long-term N inputs. Taken together, our results suggested that soil microbial community shifted consistently in both SM and WW seasons toward a higher proportion of N-cycle microbes and exhibited higher N turnover activities in response to long-term elevated N fertilizer. These findings provided new insights into the molecular mechanisms responsible for N loss in intensively N fertilized agricultural ecosystems.

SUBMITTER: Wang F

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6206047 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Long-Term Nitrogen Fertilization Elevates the Activity and Abundance of Nitrifying and Denitrifying Microbial Communities in an Upland Soil: Implications for Nitrogen Loss From Intensive Agricultural Systems.

Wang Fenghua F Chen Shuaimin S Wang Yuying Y Zhang Yuming Y Hu Chunsheng C Liu Binbin B

Frontiers in microbiology 20181023

The continuous use of nitrogen (N) fertilizers to increase soil fertility and crop productivity often results in unexpected environmental effects and N losses through biological processes, such as nitrification and denitrification. In this study, multidisciplinary approaches were employed to assess the effects of N fertilization in a long-term (~20 years) field experiment in which a fertilizer gradient (0, 200, 400, and 600 kg N ha<sup>-1</sup> yr<sup>-1</sup>) was applied in a winter wheat-summ ...[more]

PMID: 30405543

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Project description:BACKGROUND:Agricultural food production is at the base of food and fodder, with fertilization having fundamentally and continuously increased crop yield over the last decades. The performance of crops is intimately tied to their microbiome as they together form holobionts. The importance of the microbiome for plant performance is, however, notoriously ignored in agricultural systems as fertilization disconnects the dependency of plants for often plant-beneficial microbial processes. Moreover, we lack a holistic understanding of how fertilization regimes affect the soil microbiome. Here, we examined the effect of a 2-year fertilization regime (no nitrogen fertilization control, nitrogen fertilization, and nitrogen fertilization plus straw amendment) on entire soil microbiomes (bacteria, fungi, and protist) in three common agricultural soil types cropped with maize in two seasons. RESULTS:We found that the application of nitrogen fertilizers more strongly affected protist than bacterial and fungal communities. Nitrogen fertilization indirectly reduced protist diversity through changing abiotic properties and bacterial and fungal communities which differed between soil types and sampling seasons. Nitrogen fertilizer plus straw amendment had greater effects on soil physicochemical properties and microbiome diversity than nitrogen addition alone. Moreover, nitrogen fertilization, even more together with straw, increased soil microbiome network complexity, suggesting that the application of nitrogen fertilizers tightened soil microbiomes interactions. CONCLUSIONS:Together, our results suggest that protists are the most susceptible microbiome component to the application of nitrogen fertilizers. As protist communities also exhibit the strongest seasonal dynamics, they serve as the most sensitive bioindicators of soil changes. Changes in protist communities might have long-term effects if some of the key protist hubs that govern microbiome complexities as top microbiome predators are altered. This study serves as the stepping stone to promote protists as promising agents in targeted microbiome engineering to help in reducing the dependency on exogenous unsustainably high fertilization and pesticide applications.

Dataset Information

Long-Term Nitrogen Fertilization Elevates the Activity and Abundance of Nitrifying and Denitrifying Microbial Communities in an Upland Soil: Implications for Nitrogen Loss From Intensive Agricultural Systems.

Publications

Long-Term Nitrogen Fertilization Elevates the Activity and Abundance of Nitrifying and Denitrifying Microbial Communities in an Upland Soil: Implications for Nitrogen Loss From Intensive Agricultural Systems.

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