Long-Term Manure Amendment Sustains Black Soil Biodiversity by Mitigating Acidification Induced by Chemical N Fertilization

Abstract

The long-term use of chemical N fertilization may have a negative impact upon soil fertility and quality. On the contrary, organic fertilization is considered a sustainable development agricultural strategy. However, the remediation effect of organic fertilization on agroecosystems remains unclear. This study was conducted in a long-term (1979–2020) field experiment to investigate the influence of organic and chemical fertilizers on the soil microbiome assembly processes. The experiment consisted of six treatments: chemical N fertilization (N), double N fertilization (N2), organic fertilization (M), organic and N fertilization (MN), double organic and N fertilization (M2N2), and unfertilized control. The chemical N fertilization (N and N2) treatments significantly decreased soil microbial diversity, as well as soil pH, compared to the Control treatments (p < 0.05). MN and M2N2 treatments increased microbial diversity compared to that of N and N2 treatments. The combination of organic and chemical N fertilizer recovered the decreased microbial diversity to the level of the Control and M treatments, but the application of double organic fertilizer (M2N2) still showed a significantly lower microbial diversity than that of the Control and M treatments. From the results of the microbial community assembly processes, it was found that environmental filtering was induced by N fertilization, while organic fertilization developed a stochastic process and mitigated the role of environmental filtering in the community assembly process. An ecological network analysis showed that the decrease in Acidobacteria in organic fertilization treatments played a key role in mitigating the soil acidification induced by 40-year chemical N fertilization. It indicated that organic fertilizer could mitigate the decrease in soil fertility induced by chemical N fertilization. Higher environmental filtering effects in M2N2 than those in MN treatments suggested that the mitigation effect of organic fertilizer was weakened when double chemical N fertilization was applied in black soils. These results are helpful for a unified understanding of the ecological processes for microbial communities in the development of sustainable agriculture.

Assessment method of distribution network health level based on multivariate information

“…In contrast to the interval partitioning method, our proposed approach in this paper offers a more precise and comprehensive evaluation of the health status of the distribution network. For instance, a previous study (Sun et al, 2022) uses four equally sized intervals to represent four distinct health levels. In cases where the health levels of the equipment and the grid layers do not match, the lower of the two levels is deemed as the health level of the distribution network.…”

“…To address this, researchers have attempted to integrate smart grid information technology into assessing distribution network health. For instance (Sun et al, 2022), integrated the grid and equipment health indexes to evaluate the health level of distribution networks. However, this approach may lose some key information that is critical to accurately reflecting changes in the health status of equipment or grid.…”

Partial Substitution of Chemical N with Solid Cow Manure Improved Soil Ecological Indicators and Crop Yield in a Wheat–Rice Rotation System

“…Despite the encouraging effects of chemical fertilizers on soil productivity/crop growth, excessive fertilization might cause serious environmental problems, threatening the quality of soil and water [4][5][6][7][8]. As such, heavy chemical fertilization can adversely affect soil microbial/enzyme properties/activities, along with causing soil hardening, soil acidification, and nutrient leaching [4].…”

“…As such, heavy chemical fertilization can adversely affect soil microbial/enzyme properties/activities, along with causing soil hardening, soil acidification, and nutrient leaching [4]. Furthermore, long-term chemical inputs threaten sustainable agricultural development via reducing the nutrients' use efficiency/deteriorating soil fertility, and imposing non-point source pollution [4][5][6][7]. For instance, long-term N overfertilization stimulated soil acidification and salinization in greenhouse vegetable soils of Shandong, North China, and Zhejiang, East China, due to the nitrification reactions that lowered the pH [8].…”

Effects of combined application of organic and inorganic fertilizers on Triticum aestivum quality, soil nutrients, and ecological risks

“…Apparently, over-fertilization is also a major threat for the sustainable agricultural development via reducing the utilization e ciency of fertilizers and imposing non-point source pollution (Dong et al 2021;Sun et al 2022). In addition, long term chemical fertilization in high quantities might also deteriorate soil fertility and reduce crop growth (Han et al, 2014;He et al 2022) with subsequent reduction in farmers' income.…”