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RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)

Microbial community diversity and enzyme activity varies in response to long-term fertilisation in a continuous potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) cropping system

Haotian Yuan https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0806-3888 A B , Meilian Meng A * , Youjun Chen C , Shenghui Yang A , Tingting Zhang B , Chunlei Xue B and Jiangan Guo B
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A College of Agronomy, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot 010018, People’s Republic of China.

B Inner Mongolia Academy of Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Sciences, Hohhot 010030, People’s Republic of China.

C College of Life Science, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot 010018, People’s Republic of China.

* Correspondence to: mmeilian@126.com

Handling Editor: Tandra Fraser

Soil Research 61(3) 224-240 https://doi.org/10.1071/SR22015
Submitted: 21 January 2022  Accepted: 21 October 2022   Published: 18 November 2022

© 2023 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)

Abstract

Context: The misuse of chemical fertilisers is still prevalent in potato cultivation. However, the large-scale application of manure is increasingly being accepted by growers to improve soil health.

Aim: To clarify what effect manure and chemical fertilisers have on the development of soil microbes in potato fields.

Methods: The status of soil microbial community abundance and structure were determined by analysing soil metagenomes, which were assessed by applying high through-put sequencing technology. The potato field received one of the following treatments for 9 years: manure (M); manure plus nitrogenous (N), phosphatic (P), and potassic (K) fertiliser (MNPK); NPK fertiliser; NP fertiliser; NK fertiliser; PK fertiliser; and no fertiliser.

Key results: The application of manure significantly increased soil organic matter, and this increase was one of the main factors in reducing bacterial Shannon and Heip indices and increasing the Simpson index. The MNPK treatment significantly reduced the relative abundance of α-Proteobacteria and β-Proteobacteria in the soil, which are essential microorganisms involved in nitrogen cycling. The M treatment significantly increased the abundance of Actinobacteria.

Conclusions: In summary, applying manure increases Actinobacteria’s abundance, and using MNPK fertilisers decreases the abundance of Proteobacteria, whereas chemical fertilisers are detrimental to soil fungal diversity.

Implications: Applying MNPK fertilisers has a complex effect on soil microorganisms. It is not simply a combination of the effects of manure and chemical fertilisers on microbes; the interaction mechanism of microbial succession needs to be further explored.

Keywords: bacteria, community diversity, enzyme activity, fertilisation, fungi, microbial abundance, potato, soil microbes.


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