Impacts of deficit irrigation and organic amendments on soil microbial populations and yield of processing tomatoes

Abstract

Altered precipitation patterns and increased water demands from urban, industrial, and environmental needs often reduce the volume of irrigation water available for agriculture. Strategies that reduce irrigation water inputs, e.g., deficit irrigation (DI), need further evaluation to determine potential impacts on yield and soil microbial communities driving critical soil biogeochemical cycles. Whether soil organic amendments can stabilize DI effects on yield and microbial communities remains unknown. Processing tomato beds were established in a full factorial experimental design of soils unamended or amended with a one-time application—four to five years before sampling—of either biochar or biochar with compost and three irrigation regimes: full (100 % of plant water demand), or DI treatments at 75 % or 50 % of full irrigation. We profiled soil bacterial and archaeal community compositions for two growing seasons and determined soil C and N metabolic potentials and biomass of microbial groups using high throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA genes and phospholipid fatty acid analysis. We tested the discrete and interactive effects of DI and soil amendments on soil chemical and biological properties, and crop yield. DI had stronger effects on the bacterial and archaeal community composition than soil organic amendments. However, 75 % DI did not strongly affect bacterial and archaeal community composition or the total and individual biomass of microbial groups, but it increased irrigation water productivity of processing tomatoes. Although soil amendments did not stabilize the compositional shifts induced by DI, their recalcitrant C still had residual effects on the bacterial and archaeal community composition years after their incorporation. Furthermore, soil moisture correlated with bacterial and archaeal community's C and N metabolic potentials, likely augmenting the amendments' C and N residence time in DI soils. Our results provide insight into water-saving mechanisms that could increase profit margins in water-scarce years without affecting microbial populations that support plant growth and productivity.