Short-Term Effects of Different Organic Amendments on Soil Fungal Composition

Muhammad Tayyab,Ziqin Pang,Hua Zhang,Sheng Lin,Farghama Khalil,Waqar Islam,Chol Gyu Lee,Wenxiong Lin

doi:10.3390/su11010198

Abstract

Fungi play an essential role in recovering the quality and fertility of soil. There is a limited understating of the complex response of fungal diversity to different organic materials in clay loam soil. Here, we report the response of soil fungi toward the short-term application of manure (M), sugarcane straw (S), and sugarcane straw plus manure (MS), including no organic material control (CK) at two different time points (50 and 100 days after application). Illumina sequencing was used to examine the fungal communities. Our results reveal a significant shift among the soil fungal community structure associated with each organic material application. After both time points, amendments—especially M and MS—decreased the fungal richness and stimulated the copiotrophic fungal group (Ascomycota) compared to the control soil (CK) and S-amended soil. On the contrary, as compared to the M and MS-amended soils, the CK and S-amended soils at both time points increased the fungal richness and stimulated the oligotrophic fungal groups. Organic material use, especially M and MS, showed variable results regarding pathogenic fungi enhancing the abundance of Lophodermium and Cercophora and decreasing Fusarium. Concerning the abundance of plant-beneficial fungi, Mortierella was reduced, and Podospora was increased by M and MS input. FUNGuild showed that the amendment of organic materials efficiently declined the abundance of endophytes and plant pathogens, but also enhanced the animal pathogens in terms of abundance with respect to CK at two time points. This study could be useful to provide a novel understanding of the management of soil-borne pathogens by organic amendments for the sustainable production of short-term crops.

Highlights

Fertilization is a well-known agricultural strategy in which the mineral and organic amendments are commonly practiced to enhance soil fertility and crop yield [1]
We explored the impacts of sugarcane straw (S), goat manure (M), and goat manure plus sugarcane straw (MS) on soil fertility, soil enzymes activities, and bacterial composition at two different time points
A total of 1,897,648 reads were obtained from all of the Ssuasmtaipnalbeisli.tyA2c01c9o,r1d1,in19g8 to the rarefaction analysis curve, the operational taxonomic unit (OTU) numbers for ITS were plateau4eodf 1a3t 97% similarity after the 45,000 sequences (Figure 1; Table S1). This confirmed that the sequence depth was sufficient to capture the richness and diversity of soil samples derived from CK, M, MS, and S at abtobthotthimtiempeopionitns.tsA

Summary

Introduction

Fertilization is a well-known agricultural strategy in which the mineral and organic amendments are commonly practiced to enhance soil fertility and crop yield [1]. Soil degradation and acidification are the significant obstacles attributed to the application of mineral fertilizers; the nitrogen especially contributes to a drastic reduction in soil fertility and crop yield [4,5]. Organic material application represents an alternative approach to mineral fertilizers in order to ensure human health, agricultural sustainability, food security, and crop yield [6,7]. Different types, amounts, and frequencies of soil amendments improve the soil physiochemical attributes, affecting soil fertility, and ensuring crop yields [1,8]

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion