Abstract
There are rising concerns about the negative environmental impacts of excessive N fertilizers used in agriculture. However, perennial crops require periodic large N doses for optimum growth. Hence, minimizing N application and regulating its long-term availability using N-cycling-mediating bacteria is a viable option that remains unexplored. We explored the comparative potentials of biochar and manure to provide a conducive condition for Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus licheniformis to improve their effects on N-cycling enzyme activity, the distribution of indigenous N-cycling-related bacteria, and long-term N availability for the growth of Nageia nagi after one year of single N dose. Results showed that NH4+-N did not vary across the treatments. While NO3--N showed no variation between the fertilizer+biochar (FB) and fertilizer+manure (FM) treatments, dissolved organic-N (DON) increased in FB. Inoculation+fertilizer+biochar (FBI) induced a potential N-cycling enzyme activity, hence, an increase in NO3--N, DON, and amino acid-N concentrations compared to inoculation+fertilizer+manure (FMI). This was associated with increased plant growth and leaf-N concentration in the inoculated treatments. Higher N-cycling due to Bacillus spp. inoculation increased the diversity of soil bacteria in FMI compared to FBI and other treatments. However, an increase in the relative abundance of some key nitrification-related bacterial taxa in FBI (Betaproteobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria, and Actinobacteria) was associated with higher N-cycling enzyme activity, NO3--N, DON, and amino acid-N concentrations compared to FMI. Due to low persistence, the long-term effect of Bacillus spp. on N release was mainly indirect, through their stimulatory effect on N-cycling enzyme activity and bacterial community. Therefore, periodic inoculation in biochar amended soils could be important in sustaining long-term N availability.
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This work was funded by the University-Industry Cooperation Project of Fujian Province (2021N5002) and the Fujian Forestry Science and Technology Promotion Project (2020TG17).
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All authors contributed to the study’s conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by [Muhammed Mustapha Ibrahim], [Liming Guo], [Hongxue Zhang], and [Fengying Wu]. Data curation, investigation, methodology, writing of the original draft, review, and editing were done by [Muhammed Mustapha Ibrahim]. Funding acquisition, supervision, validation, visualization, review and editing, project administration, and resources were provided by [Yanling Mao], [Shihe Xing], and [Shuangquan Zou]. All authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Ibrahim, M.M., Guo, L., Zhang, H. et al. Comparative Impact of Bacillus spp. on Long-Term N Supply and N-Cycling Bacterial Distribution Under Biochar and Manure Amendment. J Soil Sci Plant Nutr 22, 882–895 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42729-021-00698-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42729-021-00698-4