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Maize growth responses to soil microbes and soil properties after fertilization with different green manures

  • Environmental biotechnology
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Abstract

The use of green manures in agriculture can provide nutrients, affect soil microbial communities, and be a more sustainable management practice. The activities of soil microbes can effect crop growth, but the extent of this effect on yield remains unclear. We investigated soil bacterial communities and soil properties under four different green manure fertilization regimes (Vicia villosa, common vetch, milk vetch, and radish) and determined the effects of these regimes on maize growth. Milk vetch showed the greatest potential for improving crop productivity and increased maize yield by 31.3 %. This change might be related to changes in soil microbes and soil properties. The entire soil bacterial community and physicochemical properties differed significantly among treatments, and there were significant correlations between soil bacteria, soil properties, and maize yield. In particular, abundance of the phyla Acidobacteria and Verrucomicrobia was positively correlated with maize yield, while Proteobacteria and Chloroflexi were negatively correlated with yield. These data suggest that the variation of maize yield was related to differences in soil bacteria. The results also indicate that soil pH, alkali solution nitrogen, and available potassium were the key environmental factors shaping soil bacterial communities and determining maize yields. Both soil properties and soil microbes might be useful as indicators of soil quality and potential crop yield.

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Acknowledgments

The study was supported by the National Nature Science Foundation of China (No. 31570113 and No. 41573072). Thanks to Prof. Huaqun Yin and Xueduan Liu who helped us design this study and contributed the materials essential for this study; to Yabing Gu, Liyuan Ma, and Yili Liang for their help in finishing this experiment; to Jiaojiao Niu and Yunhua Xiao for data analysis; and to Delong Meng, Yuguang Zhang, Wenkun Huang, and Deliang Peng for language revision.

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Tao, J., Liu, X., Liang, Y. et al. Maize growth responses to soil microbes and soil properties after fertilization with different green manures. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 101, 1289–1299 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-016-7938-1

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