[Effects of biomass conditioner on soil nutrient and microbial community characteristics of alpine desertified grassland in northwest Sichuan, China].

Biomass conditioner made from agricultural and animal husbandry waste for resource disposal could be used to improve desertified soil, which is one of the effective ways of ecological management on desertified grasslands in northwest Sichuan. To clarify the effects of different raw material conditioners on alpine desertified grassland in northwest Sichuan, we analyzed the effects of three conditioners on soil nutrients and microbial community characteristics. With no conditioner as the control (CK), three different biomass conditioners were set up with an application rate of 12 t·hm, including mushroom dregs (JZ), straw (JG) and biochar (SWT). The results showed that all biomass conditioners could significantly increase soil available nutrients and active organic carbon by 23.0%-521.6%. Among the three conditioners, JG had the best effect, with an improvement range for soil nutrient and organic carbon of 65.1%-521.6%. Because biomass conditioner was only applied in the first year, soil available nutrients and active organic carbon in the second year decreased by 4.5%-92.3% compared with that of the first year, while soil organic carbon and microbial biomass carbon content of the second year increased by 5.6%-458.0%. The biomass conditioners changed the relative abundance of the dominant bacteria in the microbial community. JG significantly affected bacterial flora, while JG and JZ affected fungal flora. Compared with CK, JG significantly reduced the diversity of soil bacteria and fungi. The Shannon index was decreased by 2.9% and 31.8%, while the Simpson index was increased by 175.0% and 320.9%, respectively. Results of the redundancy analysis showed that the contents of soil available nutrients and active organic carbon were important factors affecting microbial community composition. The contents of soil nitrate and microbial biomass carbon had greater impacts on bacterial community composition, explaining 65.9% of community variations. The contents of soil available potassium and microbial biomass carbon had a greater impact on fungal community composition, explaining 83.2% of community variation. According to the comprehensive comparison, straw conditioner could significantly increase soil available nutrients and active organic carbon, and benefit the growth of beneficial bacteria and fungi, which could be used as a promotion measure to improve soil quality of alpine desertified grassland in northwest Sichuan.