Impacts of manure application on soil environment, rainfall use efficiency and crop biomass under dryland farming.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Wang X
PROVIDER: S-EPMC4751486 | biostudies-other | 2016 Feb
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other
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Project description:As a traditional agricultural system, integrated crop-livestock farms (ICLFs) involve the production of animals and crops in a shared environment. The ICLFs in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States practice sustainable manure aging or composting processes to provide an on-farm source of soil amendment for use as natural fertilizer and soil conditioner for crop production. However, crop fertilization by soil incorporation of aged manure or compost may introduce different microbes and alter the soil microbial community. The aim of this study was to characterize the influence of aged or composted manure application on the diversity of soil bacterial community in ICLFs. Soil samples from six ICLFs in Maryland were collected before (pre-crop) and during the season (2020-2021) and used to analyze soil bacterial microbiome by 16S rDNA sequencing. Results showed that both phylum- and genus-level alterations of soil bacterial communities were associated with amendment of aged or composted manure. Particularly, Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria were enriched, while Acidobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Planctomycetes, Firmicutes, and Chloroflexi were reduced after manure product application. Meanwhile, the relative abundance of Bacillus was decreased, while two zoonotic pathogens, Salmonella and Listeria, were enriched by manure amendments. Overall, animal manure amendment of soil increased the phylogenetic diversity, but reduced the richness and evenness of the soil bacterial communities. Although manure composting management in ICLFs benefits agricultural sustainable production, the amendments altered the soil bacterial communities and were associated with the finding of two major zoonotic bacterial pathogens, which raises the possibility of their potential transfer to fresh horticultural produce crops that may be produced on the manured soils and then subsequently consumed without cooking.
| S-EPMC8706570 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Manure, which contains large amounts of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), is widely used in agricultural soils and may lead to the evolution and dispersal of ARGs in the soil environment. In the present study, soils that received manure or chemical fertilizers for 15 years were sampled on the North China Plain (NCP), which is one of the primary areas of intensive agriculture in China. High-throughput quantitative PCR and sequencing technologies were employed to assess the effects of long-term manure or chemical fertilizer application on the distribution of ARGs and microbial communities. A total of 114 unique ARGs were successfully amplified from all soil samples. Manure application markedly increased the relative abundance and detectable numbers of ARGs, with up to 0.23 copies/16S rRNA gene and 81 unique ARGs. The increased abundance of ARGs in manure-fertilized soil was mainly due to the manure increasing the abundance of indigenous soil ARGs. In contrast, chemical fertilizers only moderately affected the diversity of ARGs and had no significant effect on the relative abundance of the total ARGs. In addition, manure application increased the abundance of mobile genetic elements (MGEs), which were significantly and positively correlated with most types of ARGs, indicating that horizontal gene transfer via MGEs may play an important role in the spread of ARGs. Furthermore, the application of manure and chemical fertilizers significantly affected microbial community structure, and variation partitioning analysis showed that microbial community shifts represented the major driver shaping the antibiotic resistome. Taken together, our results provide insight into the long-term effects of manure and chemical fertilization on the dissemination of ARGs in intensive agricultural ecosystems.
| S-EPMC7015874 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundThe importance of organic farming has increased through the years to promote food security allied with minimal harm to the ecosystem. Besides the environmental benefits, a recurring problem associated with organic management is the unsatisfactory yield. A possible solution may rely on the soil microbiome, which presents a crucial role in the soil system. Here, we aimed to evaluate the soil bacterial community structure and composition under organic and conventional farming, considering the tropical climate and tropical soil.MethodologyOur organic management treatments were composed by composted poultry manure and green manure with Bokashi. Both organic treatments were based on low nitrogen inputs. We evaluated the soil bacterial community composition by high-throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA genes, soil fertility, and soil enzyme activity in two organic farming systems, one conventional and the last transitional from conventional to organic.ResultsWe observed that both organic systems evaluated in this study, have higher yield than the conventional treatment, even in a year with drought conditions. These yield results are highly correlated with changes in soil chemical properties and enzymatic activity. The attributes pH, Ca, P, alkaline phosphatase, and β- glucosidase activity are positively correlated with organic systems, while K and Al are correlated with conventional treatment. Also, our results show in the organic systems the changes in the soil bacteria community, being phyla Acidobacteria, Firmicutes, Nitrospirae, and Rokubacteria the most abundant. These phyla were correlated with soil biochemical changes in the organic systems, helping to increase crop yields.ConclusionDifferent organic management systems, (the so-called natural and organic management systems, which use distinct organic sources), shift the soil bacterial community composition, implying changes in their functionalities. Also, our results contributed to the identification of target bacterial groups and changes in soil chemical properties and enzymatic activity in a trophic organic farming system, which may contribute to higher crop yields.
| S-EPMC8465994 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Agriculture has long employed phylogenetic rules whereby farmers are encouraged to rotate taxonomically unrelated plants in shared soil. Although this forms a central tenet of sustainable agriculture, strangely, this on-farm "rule of thumb" has never been rigorously tested in a scientific framework. To experimentally evaluate the relationship between phylogenetic distance and crop performance, we used a plant-soil feedback approach whereby 35 crops and weeds varying in their relatedness to tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) were tested in a two-year field experiment. We used community profiling of the bacteria and fungi to determine the extent to which soil microbes contribute to phenotypic differences in crop growth. Overall, tomato yield was ca. 15% lower in soil previously cultivated with tomato; yet, past the species level there was no effect of phylogenetic distance on crop performance. Soil microbial communities, on the other hand, were compositionally more similar between close plant relatives. Random forest regression predicted log10 phylogenetic distance to tomato with moderate accuracy (R 2 = .52), primarily driven by bacteria in the genus Sphingobium. These data indicate that, beyond avoiding conspecifics, evolutionary history contributes little to understanding plant-soil feedbacks in agricultural fields; however, microbial legacies can be predicted by species identity and relatedness.
| S-EPMC7463318 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Odorous volatile organic compounds (VOC) and hydrogen sulfide (H2S) are emitted together with ammonia (NH3) from manure slurry applied as a fertilizer, but little is known about the composition and temporal variation of the emissions. In this work, a laboratory method based on dynamic flux chambers packed with soil has been used to measure emissions from untreated pig slurry and slurry treated by solid-liquid separation and ozonation. Proton-transfer-reaction mass spectrometry (PTR-MS) was used to provide time resolved data for a range of VOC, NH3 and H2S. VOC included organic sulfur compounds, carboxylic acids, phenols, indoles, alcohols, ketones and aldehydes. H2S emission was remarkably observed to take place only in the initial minutes after slurry application, which is explained by its high partitioning into the air phase. Long-term odor effects are therefore assessed to be mainly due to other volatile compounds with low odor threshold values, such as 4-methylphenol. PTR-MS signal assignment was verified by comparison to a photo-acoustic analyzer (NH3) and to thermal desorption GC/MS (VOC). Due to initial rapid changes in odorant emissions and low concentrations of odorants, PTR-MS is assessed to be a very useful method for assessing odor following field application of slurry. The effects of treatments on odorant emissions are discussed.
| S-EPMC4327069 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Manure application to agricultural soils is widely considered as a source of nutrients and a method of maintaining levels of soil organic carbon (SOC) to mitigate climate change. At present, it is still unclear which factors are responsible for the SOC stock dynamics. Therefore, we analyzed the relationship between SOC stock changes and site characteristics, soil properties, experiment characteristics and manure characteristics. Overall, we included 101 studies with a total of 592 treatments. On average, the application of manure on agricultural soils increased SOC stocks by 35.4%, corresponding to 10.7 Mg ha-1. Manure applications in conventional tillage systems led to higher SOC stocks (+ 2.2 Mg ha-1) than applications under reduced tillage. Soil organic carbon increase upon manure application was higher in soils under non-tropical climate conditions (+ 2.7 Mg ha-1) compared to soils under sub-tropical climate. Larger SOC increases after manure application were achieved in intermediate and shallow topsoils (in 0-15 cm by 9.5 Mg ha-1 and in 16-20 cm by 13.6 Mg ha-1), but SOC stocks were also increased in deeper soils (> 20 cm 4.6 Mg ha-1), regardless of the tillage intensity. The highest relative SOC increase (+ 48%) was achieved if the initial SOC was below 1% but the absolute SOC increased with increasing initial SOC. Clay soils showed higher SOC increase rates compared to sandy soils (+ 3.1 Mg ha-1). Acidic soils showed comparable relative effects but a higher stock difference than neutral (+ 5.1 Mg ha-1) and alkaline soils (+ 5.1 Mg ha-1). The application of farmyard-, cattle- and pig manure showed the highest SOC increases (50%, 32% and 41%, respectively), while green manure and straw showed only minor effects. If manure applications were combined with additional mineral fertilizer, the SOC increases were higher (+ 1.7 Mg ha-1) compared to manure alone. Higher applied amounts generally led to higher SOC stocks. However the annually applied amount is only important under conventional tillage, non-tropical climate conditions, and pH-neutral as well as SOC-rich or SOC-depleted soils and if no additional mineral fertilization is applied. Further studies should focus on the SOC dynamics under tropical climate conditions and factors influencing a potential carbon saturation. In both cases, the number of data was too small. For this reason, additional field studies should be conducted primarily in the tropics. On the other hand, long-term field trials should be re-assessed or newly established to specifically investigate potential saturation effects and long-term (> 20 years) fertilizer effects and carbon sequestration.
| S-EPMC7943820 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Soils are essential components of terrestrial ecosystems that experience strong pollution pressure. Microplastic contamination of soils is being increasingly documented, with potential consequences for soil biodiversity and function. Notwithstanding, data on effects of such contaminants on fundamental properties potentially impacting soil biota are lacking. The present study explores the potential of microplastics to disturb vital relationships between soil and water, as well as its consequences for soil structure and microbial function. During a 5-weeks garden experiment we exposed a loamy sand soil to environmentally relevant nominal concentrations (up to 2%) of four common microplastic types (polyacrylic fibers, polyamide beads, polyester fibers, and polyethylene fragments). Then, we measured bulk density, water holding capacity, hydraulic conductivity, soil aggregation, and microbial activity. Microplastics affected the bulk density, water holding capacity, and the functional relationship between the microbial activity and water stable aggregates. The effects are underestimated if idiosyncrasies of particle type and concentrations are neglected, suggesting that purely qualitative environmental microplastic data might be of limited value for the assessment of effects in soil. If extended to other soils and plastic types, the processes unravelled here suggest that microplastics are relevant long-term anthropogenic stressors and drivers of global change in terrestrial ecosystems.
| S-EPMC6128618 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BACKGROUND:Cow manure is not only an agricultural waste, but also an organic fertilizer resource. The application of organic fertilizer is a feasible practice to mitigate the soil degradation caused by overuse of chemical fertilizers, which can affect the bacterial diversity and community composition in soils. However, to our knowledge, the information about the soil bacterial diversity and composition in tea plantation applied with cow manure fertilization was limited. In this study, we performed one field trial to research the response of the soil bacterial community to cow manure fertilization compared with urea fertilization using the high-throughput sequencing technique of 16S rRNA genes, and analyzed the relationship between the soil bacterial community and soil characteristics during different tea-picking seasons using the Spearman's rank correlation analysis. RESULTS:The results showed that the soil bacterial communities were dominated by Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Acidobacteria and Actinobacteria across all tea-picking seasons. Therein, there were significant differences of bacterial communities in soils with cow manure fertilization (CMF) and urea fertilization (UF) in three seasons: the relative abundance of Bacteroidetes in CMF was significantly higher than that in UF and CK in spring, and the relative abundance of Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes in CMF was significantly higher than that in UF and CK in autumn. So, the distribution of the dominant phyla was mainly affected by cow manure fertilization. The diversity of bacterial communities in soils with cow manure fertilization was higher than that in soils with urea fertilization, and was the highest in summer. Moreover, soil pH, OM and AK were important environmental properties affecting the soil bacterial community structure in tea plantation. CONCLUSIONS:Although different fertilizers and seasons affect the diversity and structure of soil microorganisms, the application of cow manure can not only improve the diversity of soil bacteria, but also effectively regulate the structure of soil bacterial community in tea plantation. So, cow manure fertilization is more suitable for tea plantation.
| S-EPMC7329415 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Animal manures recycled onto crop production land carry antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The present study evaluated the fate in soil of selected genes associated with antibiotic resistance or genetic mobility in field plots cropped to vegetables and managed according to normal farming practice. Referenced to unmanured soil, fertilization with swine or dairy manure increased the relative abundance of the gene targets sul1, erm(B), str(B), int1, and IncW repA. Following manure application in the spring of 2012, gene copy number decayed exponentially, reaching background levels by the fall of 2012. In contrast, gene copy number following manure application in the fall of 2012 or spring of 2013 increased significantly in the weeks following application and then declined. In both cases, the relative abundance of gene copy numbers had not returned to background levels by the fall of 2013. Overall, these results suggest that under conditions characteristic of agriculture in a humid continental climate, a 1-year period following a commercial application of raw manure is sufficient to ensure that an additional soil burden of antibiotic resistance genes approaches background. The relative abundance of several gene targets exceeded background during the growing season following a spring application or an application done the previous fall. Results from the present study reinforce the advisability of treating manure prior to use in crop production systems.
| S-EPMC4018915 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Sustainable agricultural practices such as cover crops (CCs) and residue retention are increasingly applied to counteract detrimental consequences on natural resources. Since agriculture affects soil properties partly via microbial communities, it is critical to understand how these respond to different management practices. Our study analyzed five CC treatments (oat, rye, radish, rye-radish mixture and no-CC) and two crop residue managements (retention/R+ or removal/R-) in an 8-year diverse horticultural crop rotation trial from ON, Canada. CC effects were small but stronger than those of residue management. Radish-based CCs tended to be the most beneficial for both microbial abundance and richness, yet detrimental for fungal evenness. CC species, in particular radish, also shaped fungal and, to a lesser extent, prokaryotic community composition. Crop residues modulated CC effects on bacterial abundance and fungal evenness (i.e., more sensitive in R- than R+), as well as microbial taxa. Several microbial structure features (e.g., composition, taxa within Actinobacteria, Firmicutes and Ascomycota), some affected by CCs, were correlated with early biomass production of the following tomato crop. Our study suggests that, whereas mid-term CC effects were small, they need to be better understood as they could be influencing cash crop productivity via plant-soil feedbacks.
| S-EPMC9160062 | biostudies-literature