Abstract
Microbial communities play an important role in soil nutrient cycling. The present study aimed to evaluate the relationships of plant species, soil physical and chemical properties and microbial communities between high- and low-yield organically managed fruit orchards. The BiologTM and phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs) analysis were used to evaluate soil microbial communities for eight typical organic orchards in Beijing, China. These included high- and low-yield agricultural sites for four types of fruit orchards: pear, peach, apple and grape. The soil properties including soil organic matter (OM), soil pH, soil total nitrogen (TN), soil available phosphorus (AP), soil available K (AK), cation exchange capacity (CEC), soil bulk density, soil porosity, microbial biomass and microbial activities were investigated. There were significant higher microbial biomass and lower bulk density in the soils of high-yield orchards than that in low-yield orchards. Differences between the paired soils of high- and low-yield orchards were highly associated with the average well colour development and total PLFAs. Key words: Microbial community, biolog, substrate utilisation, phospholipid fatty acid,organic agriculture.
Highlights
Organic agriculture is an ecological production management system that promotes and enhances soil biodiversity, biological cycles and biological activity
The lowest available phosphorus (AP) (23.1 mg/kg) and the lowest available K (AK) (111.6 mg/kg) contents were in the low-yield and high-yield pear orchards, respectively
Soil organic matter (OM), total nitrogen (TN), AK and AP were higher in the high-yield orchards of apple and grape than in the pair site low-yield orchards
Summary
Organic agriculture is an ecological production management system that promotes and enhances soil biodiversity, biological cycles and biological activity. The primary goal of organic agriculture is to optimise the health and productivity of interdependent communities of soil microbes, plants, animals and people. This method avoids the use of synthetic chemical fertilisers and genetically modified organisms to influence the growth of crops, and emphasises environmental protection, animal welfare, food quality and health, sustainable resource use and social justice objectives (Goewie, 2003). Soil microbial communities are important for the functioning of the ecosystem, both in relation to direct interactions with plants and with regard to nutrient and organic matter cycling. Substrate utilisation assay was used toanalysetheheterotrophicmicrobial communities(Garland and Mills, 1991; Buyer et al, 2002), and phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs) analysis was used to examine the overall microbial community structure, independent of culturability of the microorganisms
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