Abstract
Both liming and plant residue incorporation are widely used practices for the amelioration of acidic soils—however, the difference in their effects is still not fully understood, especially regarding the microbial community. In this study, we took the acidic soils from a subtropical orchard as target soils, and implemented liming and plant residue incorporation with a leguminous and a gramineous cover crop as test plants. After six months of growth, soil pH, total organic carbon (TOC), dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and nutrient contents were determined, soil enzymes involving C, N, P cycling were assayed, and microbial communities were also analyzed using Polymerase Chain Reaction-Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE). Results showed that liming was more effective in elevating soil pH, while plant residue incorporation exerted a more comprehensive influence—not only on soil pH, but also on soil enzyme activity and microbial community. PCR-DGGE analysis revealed that liming changed the microbial community structure more greatly than plant residue incorporation, while plant residue incorporation altered the microbial community composition much more than liming. The growth responses of test plants to liming and plant residue incorporation depended on plant species, indicating the necessity to select appropriate practice for a particular crop. A further, detailed investigation into the microbial community composition, and the respective functions using metagenomic approach, is also suggested.
Highlights
Acidic soils occupy around 40% of the total agricultural lands worldwide, representing one of the most important limiting factors of agriculture production [1]
We demonstrated that the modification of the microbial community was achieved by both liming and plant residue incorporation, the effect size of liming was weaker than that of plant residue incorporation
Soil nutrient levels and enzyme activities were increased by liming or plant residue incorporation, the effect of plant residue incorporation was more comprehensive than that of liming
Summary
Acidic soils occupy around 40% of the total agricultural lands worldwide, representing one of the most important limiting factors of agriculture production [1]. In China, acidic soils mainly distribute in the subtropical regions, where hilly areas are predominant with orchards, tea gardens, forest lands as the main land-use types. The farmers use liming to ameliorate the soil acidity [2]. It is reported that liming increased the soil pH in a citrus orchard by 1.0~1.4 units, compared to the adjacent native forests [3]. In the tea gardens of 8-, 50-, 90-year old, liming with CaCO3 at the rate of 6.4 g·kg−1 increased the soil pH by 3.13, 3.68, 2.24 units, respectively [4]. These subtropical soils are typical of low organic matter content, due to fast mineralization under high temperature
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