Responses of soil fertility indicators and fungi community diversity to fertilization strategies in legume-grass mixtures.

INTRODUCTION

Alfalfa-grass binary mixtures outperformed monocultures in nutrient use, soil nutrient content, and biomass yield. Nonetheless, the impact of fertilization strategies on fungal community composition and ecological functions in legume-Grass mixtures remains under-researched. This study aimed to explore the effects of different fertilization strategies on soil fungal community distribution and soil environmental characteristics.

METHODS

A field experiment in Gansu, China, has been conducted to explore the effects of five different fertilization strategies-no fertilization (CK), three partial fertilization methods (+PK, +NK, +NP), and balanced fertilization (+NPK)-on fungal population richness, community composition, and soil environmental drivers. Rhizosphere soils from the five treatments were sampled and investigated using high-throughput ITS sequencing.

RESULTS

Compared to CK, +NPK led to higher soil capabilities (< 0.05), soil organic matter (SOM), available nitrogen (AN), available phosphorus (AP), and available potassium (AK) increased by an average of 29.7 %, 42.3 %, 101.2 %, and 24.3 %, respectively; alkaline phosphatase (APA), catalase (CAT), and sucrase (SA) increased by an average of 56.6 %, 31.8 %, and 46.7 %, respectively; soil microbial biomass carbon (SMBC), soil microbial biomass nitrogen (SMBN), and soil microbial biomass phosphorus (SMBP) increased by an average of 64.8 %, 65.1 %, and 60.4 %, respectively. The dominant fungi in the rhizosphere soil were Mortierellomycota and Ascomycota, accounting for 82.2%-92.3%. The fungal species richness was the highest in the +PK treatment. From the NMDS and RDA analysis, it can be discerned that SA, AK, and CAT were the key environmental factors influencing the structure of the inter-root soil fungal community in alfalfa; CAT and SOM were the key environmental factors influencing the structure of the inter-root soil fungal community in awnless brome.

DISCUSSION

Our findings investigated the optimal fertilizer strategy for legume-Grass mixtures. Results provided a technical basis for scientific fertilizer application and development of local mixed grassland ecosystems.