Abstract
Understanding the influence of fertilizer on soil quality is vital to agricultural management, yet there are few studies, particularly in black soil. In this study, soils under various treatments, namely no fertilizer, bio-organic + humic acid, bio-organic + chemical, and chemical fertilizer, were sampled to identify their major physiochemical properties, and to investigate the fungal community structure using environmental sequencing techniques. Physiochemical properties and fungal community structure were examined at four important stages of the maize life cycle: seedling, jointing, heading period, and maturity. We found that chemical fertilizer in the mature stage increased the soil available phosphorous (AP) content. Organic matter content was greatly affected by bio-organic + chemical fertilizer during the mature stage. Bio-organic + humic acid significantly increased soil phosphatase activity in maturing maize, whilst chemical fertilizers reduced invertase activity. Taken together, our results clearly illustrated that bio-organic + humic and chemical fertilization indirectly alter fungal community structure via changing soil properties (especially AP). Chemical fertilizer markedly heightened the AP content, thereby decreasing specific fungal taxa, particularly Guehomyces. OM was of positive connection with bio-organic + humic acid and Mortierella abundance, respectively, through RDA analysis, which are in agreement with our result that bio-organic + humic acid fertilization to some extent increased Mortierella abundance. Additionally, bio-organic + humic acid decreased the abundance of Fusarium and Humicola, suggesting that bio-organic + humic acid possibly could help control crop disease. These results help to inform our fundamental understanding of the interactions between fertilizers, soil properties, and fungal communities.
Highlights
The USDA soil classification categorizes black land as Udoll black soil, which is known as Mollisols [1]
It was not difficult to observe that organic matter (OM) content in the maize mature stage was greatly affected by bio-organic + chemical fertilizer and chemical fertilizer (p < 0.05)
Bio-organic + chemical and chemical fertilizer in the maize mature stage exerted a significant impact on available phosphorus (AP), which was enhanced by 173.8% and 209.9% relative to no fertilizer (p < 0.05), respectively
Summary
The USDA soil classification categorizes black land as Udoll black soil, which is known as Mollisols [1]. Chemical fertilizer influences soil properties and has a negative impact on soil fungi community diversity and composition. Previous investigations reported that chemical fertilizer could increase fungal biomass, it greatly decreased fungal community diversity and altered community composition, shifting dominant flora from bacteria to fungi [6]. Application of bio-organic fertilizers with addition of humic acid is a cost-effective agricultural practice to avoid soil degradation issues mentioned above [7]. Multiple long-term studies have demonstrated that bio-organic + humic acid fertilizers increase microbial biomass and alter community composition and diversity by introducing considerable external carbon (C) into the soil [8]. Bio-organic + humic acid addition can bolster the capacity of soil to hold water, enhance its cation exchange capacity, increase biological enzyme activity, improve the soil structure, and prevent soil acidification [9], implying that bio-organic
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