Abstract
Soil microbial communities are essential to phosphorus (P) cycling, especially in the process of insoluble phosphorus solubilization for plant P uptake. Phosphate-solubilizing microorganisms (PSM) are the dominant driving forces. The PSM mediated soil P cycling is easily affected by water condition changes due to extreme hydrological events. Previous studies basically focused on the effects of droughts, floods, or drying-rewetting on P cycling, while few focused on drought-flood abrupt alternation (DFAA), especially through microbial activities. This study explored the DFAA effects on P cycling mediated by PSM and P metabolism-related genes in summer maize field soil. Field control experiments were conducted to simulate two levels of DFAA (light drought-moderate flood, moderate drought-moderate flood) during two summer maize growing periods (seeding-jointing stage, tasseling-grain filling stage). Results showed that the relative abundance of phosphate-solubilizing bacteria (PSB) and phosphate-solubilizing fungi (PSF) increased after DFAA compared to the control system (CS), and PSF has lower resistance but higher resilience to DFAA than PSB. Significant differences can be found on the genera Pseudomonas, Arthrobacter, and Penicillium, and the P metabolism-related gene K21195 under DFAA. The DFAA also led to unstable and dispersed structure of the farmland ecosystem network related to P cycling, with persistent influences until the mature stage of summer maize. This study provides references for understanding the micro process on P cycling under DFAA in topsoil, which could further guide the DFAA regulations.
Highlights
Phosphorus (P), a vital nutrient required for plant growth (Shi et al, 2021) but a key factor causing water pollution (Glendell et al, 2014; Yan et al, 2019), is naturally concentrated in topsoil layers (Suriyagoda et al, 2014)
The aim of this study was to test the following hypotheses: (i) phosphate-solubilizing bacteria (PSB) and phosphate-solubilizing fungi (PSF) in topsoil increased after drought-flood abrupt alternation (DFAA) compared with the control system; (ii) DFAA caused the changes of several genes related to P metabolism compared with the control system; and (iii) the DFAA destabilized and dispersed the farmland ecosystem network related to P cycling
Our study focused on the responses of phosphate-solubilizing microorganisms (PSM) mediated P cycling to DFAA in topsoil of summer maize farmland
Summary
Phosphorus (P), a vital nutrient required for plant growth (Shi et al, 2021) but a key factor causing water pollution (Glendell et al, 2014; Yan et al, 2019), is naturally concentrated in topsoil layers (Suriyagoda et al, 2014). The soil P cycling is the input, output, migration, and transformation of P element in the soil (Zhao et al, 2021). The transformation of insoluble P to soluble P is one of the key processes for plant P uptake (Yin et al, 2021). Soil microbial communities are essential to element cycling, regulation of ecosystem productivity, and so on (Hare et al, 2017; Widdig et al, 2020). As dominant driving force in soil P cycling, phosphate-solubilizing microorganisms (PSM) refer to the group of microbial communities which can solubilize insoluble P to soluble P for plant absorption (Meena et al, 2017). Most PSM are phosphate-solubilizing bacteria (PSB), few are phosphate-solubilizing fungi (PSF) and actinomycetes (Zhang J. et al, 2020)
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