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. 2023 Nov 20:14:1295722.
doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1295722. eCollection 2023.

Chemical fertilizer reduction combined with organic fertilizer affects the soil microbial community and diversity and yield of cotton

YingWu Shi #  1   2   3 , XinXiang Niu #  2   4 , BaoZhu Chen  2   4 , ShengHai Pu  2   4 , HongHong Ma  2   4 , Pan Li  2   4 , GuangPing Feng  2   4 , XingWang Ma  2   4
Affiliations

Chemical fertilizer reduction combined with organic fertilizer affects the soil microbial community and diversity and yield of cotton

YingWu Shi et al. Front Microbiol. .

Abstract

Introduction: The soil microbial community plays an important role in modulating cotton soil fertility. However, the effects of chemical fertilizer combined with organic fertilizer on soil chemical properties, microbial community structure, and crop yield and quality in arid areas are still unclear. This study aimed to explore the effects of different organic fertilizers on soil microbial community structure and diversity and cotton growth and yield.

Methods: High-throughput sequencing was used to study the soil bacteria and fungi in different growth stages of cotton. The field fertilization experiment had five treatments.

Results: The results indicated that the treatments of chemical fertilizer reduction combined with organic fertilizer significantly increased soil available nitrogen and phosphorus in cotton field. There were significant differences in the abundance of the bacterial and fungal communities in the dominant phyla among the treatments. At the phyla level, there were not significantly different in the diversity of bacteria and fungi among treatments. There were significant differences in the composition and diversity of bacterial and fungal communities during the entire cotton growth period (p = 0.001). The rhizosphere bacterial and fungal community structure was significantly affected by soil TK, NH4+, AK, TP, AN, and NO3-. The different fertilization treatments strongly influenced the modular structure of the soil bacterial and fungal community co-occurrence network. A reduction in chemical fertilizer combined with organic fertilizer significantly improved cotton stem diameter and seed yield, and the effect of the biological organic fertilizer on plant growth and yield formation was greater than that of ordinary organic fertilizer.

Discussion: This study provide a scientific and technical basis for the establishment of environmentally friendly green fertilization technology for cotton in arid areas and the promotion of sustainable development of cotton industry.

Keywords: Illumina MiSeq; cotton; organic fertilizer; reduced chemical fertilizer; soil microbial community; yield.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Relative abundances of bacterial (A–C) and fungal (D–F) taxa at the phylum, class, genus level, respectively. T1: no fertilizer application (CK); T2: Conventional fertilization (CF; NPK dosage: 714 kg ha-1: 357 kg N ha-1, 207 kg P ha-1, and 150 kg K ha-1); T3: 60% CF + 12,000 kg ha organic fertilizer (CFO; NPK dosage: 428.4 kg ha-1: 214.2 kg N ha-1, 124.2 kg P ha-1, and 90 kg K ha-1); T4: 46% CF + 428.4 kg ha humic acid urea (CFH; NPK dosage: 714 kg ha-1: 357 kg N ha-1, 207 kg P ha-1, and 150 kg K ha-1); T5: 73% CF + 225 kg ha bio-organic fertilizer (CFB; NPK dosage: 617.55 kg ha-1: 260.55 kg N ha-1, 207 kg P ha-1, and 150 kg K ha-1).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) plots of bacterial (A) and fungal (B) community composition at the OTU level. T1, T2, T3, T4, and T5 are as defined in the Figure 1 legend. B: seedling stage: M: bud stage: H: flowering stage: T: boll opening stage.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Redundancy analysis (RDA) of bacterial (A) and fungal (B) communities with soil chemical properties. WCR, electrical conductivity; OM, soil organic matter, NO3, electrical conductivity, NH4, soil organic matter.TN. total nitrogen: TP. total phosphorus: TK, total potassium; AN, total nitrogen, AP. total phosphorus: AK, total potassium. T1, T2, T3, T4, and T5 are as defined in the Figure 1 legend. B: seedling stage; M: bud stage, H: flowering stage. T. boll opening stage.
Figure 4
Figure 4
The co-occurrence network of soil bacterial and fungal community composition in a cotton field with different fertilization treatments on the phylum level. (A) bacterial community, (B) fungal community. Each node denotes a bacterial or a fungal OTU (defined at a 97% similarity level); each edge linking two nodes represents a positive (pink line) or negative (black line) relationship. OTUS are colored by different phylum. The size of each node is proportional to the number of connections. A connection between two nodes is a statistically significant (p < 0.01) and strong (r > 0.60) correlation. The percentage of positive links in every network: A 90.08%, B 73.87%.
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