Pre-flooding soil used in monocropping increased strawberry biomass and altered bacterial community composition

Abstract

ABSTRACT SummaryContinuous monocropping degrades soil physicochemical properties, leads to the accumulation of toxic compounds and changes soil microbial community composition. Pre-flooding the soil is a promising strategy to improve its productivity; however, little is known about the underlying mechanisms. Here, strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa) pot experiments were conducted with soil that had been used for continuous monocropping. The treatments were pre-flooding alone, with rice straw added and with rice straw plus a biofertilizer (mainly contained Bacillus velezensis) amendment, and the impacts of the treatments on soil physicochemical properties, bacterial diversity and composition and the integrated plant–soil–microbe responses were tracked. The strawberry biomass significantly increased after pre-flooding treatments. Pre-flooding increased the soil pH and the available P and K concentrations, while it decreased soil electrical conductivity. The bacterial diversity and abundance significantly increased after pre-flooding treatments. A Mantel test showed that soil pH and salinity were the two most important factors in shaping bacterial composition, but they exerted opposite effects. The increased strawberry biomass after pre-flooding was significantly correlated with bacterial composition and soil salinity in long-term continuous strawberry monocropping systems.