Nitrogen release from five organic fertilizers commonly used in greenhouse organic horticulture with contrasting effects on bacterial communities

Abstract

Organic fertilization in greenhouses relies on organic fertilizers with low carbon/nitrogen ratio. Nitrogen (N) availability thus depends on an efficient mineralization driven by microbial communities. However, data on the mineralization rate of such fertilizers are scarce, and their improper use can lead to either N deficiency, or N losses to the environment. Consequently, better knowledge of N availability following organic fertilization is crucial for the development of sustainable greenhouse organic horticulture. We investigated the effect of pelleted poultry manure (PM) and blood (BM), feather (FM), alfalfa (AM), and shrimp (SM) meals on N availability and bacterial communities in a peat-based organic growing medium and a mineral soil. Nitrogen and carbon (C) pools were measured periodically over a 52 wk incubation experiment. Bacterial communities were characterized by sequencing the regions V6–V8 of the 16S rRNA gene on the high-throughput Illumina MiSeq platform, 4 wk after the start of the incubation. Nitrogen mineralization plateaued for the mineral soil and the peat substrate at, respectively, 41% and 63% of applied N for PM, 56%–93% (BM), 54%–81% (FM), 34%–53% (AM), and 57%–73% (SM). Organic fertilizers supported markedly contrasted bacterial communities, closely linked to soil biochemical properties, especially mineral N, pH, and soluble C. Alfalfa meal promoted the highest Shannon diversity index in the mineral soil, whereas SM and PM increased it in the peat-based growing medium. Our results quantified the mineralization and highlighted the impact on bacterial communities of commonly used organic N fertilizers in conditions relevant to organic greenhouse horticulture.

In-Depth Observation on the Microbial and Fungal Community Structure of Four Contrasting Tomato Cultivation Systems in Soil Based and Soilless Culture Systems

“…It has been shown that it is possible to grow tomatoes in soilless culture systems in combination with inorganic and organic fertilizers ( Heeb et al, 2005b ; Zhai et al, 2009 ; Gravel et al, 2010a ; Grunert et al, 2016a ), in aquaponic systems ( Suhl et al, 2016 ) and in organic soil based systems ( Bélair and Tremblay, 1995 ; Gravel et al, 2010b ). Moreover, it was demonstrated that soil and soilless culture systems and soil amendments and fertilizers can have a clear impact on plant growth, tomato fruit quality and on the suppression of plant diseases ( Cotxarrera et al, 2002 ; Gruda, 2008 ; Zhai et al, 2009 ; Coppens et al, 2015 ; Sakarika et al, 2019 ; Dion et al, 2020 ). Several research papers have associated these favorable effects on the microbiome of the soil and the rhizosphere of the plant ( Tu et al, 2006 ; El-Yazeid and Abou-Aly, 2011 ; Bona et al, 2018 ; Sellitto et al, 2019 ).…”

“…Plants can assimilate these different kind of nitrogen forms ( Näsholm et al, 2009 ; Marschner, 2011 ). Mineralization rates are not equal for the different organic fertilizers, such as the blood meal, malt sprouts and the organic fertilizers used in combination with GBOF ( Stadler et al, 2006 ; Dion et al, 2020 ). In addition, mineralization first releases ammonium, that is then converted in nitrate during nitrification, so the concentration of nitrate depends on both the concentration of ammonium and the ammonia and nitrite oxidation rate ( Boudsocq et al, 2012 ).…”

“…These inorganic nutrients are instantly usable and the leftover either rises up in the soil, disappeared as run-off into the surface water or drains into the groundwater ( Steiner et al, 2007 ). Avoiding reduction of soil organic carbon (SOC) and too expeditious availability, one can go for organic fertilizers ( Diacono and Montemurro, 2011 ) typically produced from plant, or animal-derived materials ( Dion et al, 2020 ) and even microbes can be used ( Verstraete et al, 2016 ; Pikaar et al, 2017 ; Sakarika et al, 2019 ; Spanoghe et al, 2020 ). Blood meal has been reported to provide a fast and high-percentage N mineralization ( Agehara and Warncke, 2005 ; Hammermeister et al, 2006 ; Hartz and Johnstone, 2006 ; Gaskell and Smith, 2007 ; Sullivan et al, 2010 ).…”

La importancia de las enmiendas orgánicas en la conservación del suelo y la producción agrícola

“…Se denominan abonos verdes, a la reutilización de subproductos vegetales (ramas, hojas, troncos, frutas, aserrín, entre otras) derivados de los sistemas agrícolas y que suelen adicionarse al suelo de manera directa luego de su cosecha (Caro-Lara et al 2009;Navia-Cuetia et al 2013;Forján et al 2017). Este tipo de enmienda, se caracteriza por altos niveles de ácido fúlvico y húmico (Brtnicky et al 2019) los cuales tienen una una mayor capacidad de unir metales que los fertilizantes inorgánicos (Bernal et al 2014;Forján et al 2017) y también tienen una alta relación C/N debido a que las partes leñosas de las plantas son ricas en carbono, mientras que las hojas son ricas en nitrógeno (Arango-Osorno et al 2017;Arcand et al 2017;Dion et al 2020;). Las plantas que se emplean como abonos verdes, son generalmente fabáceas y leguminosas (Murillo et al 2014), las cuales se asocian con bacterias nativas del suelo que fijan nitrogéno atmósferico y evitan su pérdida por lixiviación; además, mejoran las propiedades fisicoquímicas, aportan macro y micronutrientes y ayudan a mitigar los efectos de la erosión, incrementando la actividad microbiana (Zapata-Hernández et al 2020).…”

Effect of Applying Struvite and Organic N as Recovered Fertilizers on the Rhizosphere Dynamics and Cultivation of Lupine (Lupinus angustifolius)

“…Commercial inorganic fertilizers are high in nutrient content, easily soluble, rapidly available, and have low and competitive prices, rendering them in principle more effective and efficient than organic or recycled fertilizers. However, organic fertilizers release nutrients slowly (Dion et al, 2020), lowering P fixation and N losses via leaching. Moreover, they enhance root growth and improve soil structure and water holding capacity, reducing soil acidification (Chen, 2006;Paungfoo-Lonhienne et al, 2012).…”