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Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus-induced decrease in nitrogen concentration in pore water and nitrogen leaching loss from red soil under simulated heavy rainfall

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Abstract

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus (AMF) is generally colonized in plant roots and influences the migration of mineral elements such as nitrogen (N) in soils. However, its effect on N leaching loss in red soils is limited. In the present study, red soils were collected from wasteland, farmland, and slopeland in the Yunnan Plateau. Maize, as a host plant, was cultured in a dual-compartment cultivation system. There were mycorrhizal and hyphal compartments for the AMF inoculation treatment and root and soil compartments for the non-inoculation treatment. The N concentration and uptake in maize, N concentration in pore water within two depth (0–20 and 20–40 cm), and N leaching losses from soil under simulated heavy rainfall (40 and 80 mm/h) were analyzed. Results showed that AMF inoculation significantly enhanced the biomass and N uptake in maize. Compared with the root and soil compartments, the N concentrations in pore water and their leaching losses from the mycorrhizal and hyphal compartments were decreased by 48–77% and 51–74%, respectively. Moreover, significant or extremely significantly positive correlations were observed between the N concentrations in pore water with the N leaching losses from soil. The three-way ANOVA showed that AMF highly significantly decreased N concentrations in pore water and their leaching losses from wasteland, farmland, and slopeland; rainfall intensity had strong influences on the N concentration in pore water from farmland and N leaching losses from wasteland and farmland, whereas the maize root’s effect was insignificant. The study indicated that the AMF-induced decreases in the N leaching loss from red soils were caused by increased N uptake by maize and decreased N concentrations in pore water. These results have implications for reducing nutrient leaching loss through the management of beneficial microorganisms in soils.

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Funding

This work was financially supported by the Key Research Development Project of Yunnan Province (No. 2019BC001-04), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41661056), and the Reserve Talents Fund for Young and Middle-Aged Academic and Technological Leaders in Yunnan Province (Nos. 2018HB043 and 202005AC160038).

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Author notes

  1. Yongmei He and Bo Li contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Resources and Environment, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming, 650201, Yunnan, China

    Yongmei He, Bo Li, Kai Yan, Gang Lei, Mingrui Li, Yuan Li & Fangdong Zhan

  2. College of Water Conservancy, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming, 650201, Yunnan, China

    Rui Yang

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  1. Yongmei He
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Contributions

Yongmei He: conceptualization, writing (original draft), funding acquisition

Bo Li: methodology, investigation, writing (original draft), data curation

Kai Yan: methodology, formal analysis

Rui Yang: methodology, investigation

Gang Lei: methodology, writing (original draft preparation), investigation

Mingrui Li: software, formal analysis

Yuan Li: funding acquisition, project administration, supervision

Fangdong Zhan: conceptualization, funding acquisition, data curation, writing (review and editing), project administration, supervision

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Correspondence to Fangdong Zhan.

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He, Y., Li, B., Yan, K. et al. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus-induced decrease in nitrogen concentration in pore water and nitrogen leaching loss from red soil under simulated heavy rainfall. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 17457–17467 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-12131-x

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