Characteristics of soil nitrogen and nitrogen cycling microbial communities in different alfalfa planting years

• Published in: Archiv für Acker- und Pflanzenbau und Bodenkunde Vol. 69; no. 14; pp. 3087 - 3101
• Main Authors: Xu, Fujin, Wu, Jie, Ru, Liyang, Chang, Huiqing
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Taylor & Francis 06.12.2023; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Abundance; Agricultural land; agronomy; Alfalfa; Ammonia; ammonia oxidizers; Ammonia-oxidizing bacteria; Archaea; Azohydromonas; Bacteria; Crenarchaeota; Cultivation duration; Cycles; genus; Microbial activity; microbial communities; Microbiomes; Microorganisms; Nitrogen; Nitrogen cycle; Nitrogen fixation; Nitrogen-fixing bacteria; Nitrogenation; Nitrosospira; Oxidation; Oxidizing agents; soil; Soils; species; total nitrogen; Traditional farming
• ISSN: 0365-0340; 1476-3567; 1476-3567
• DOI: 10.1080/03650340.2023.2203921

Nitrogen cycling in soil and its microbial community characteristics are closely related. Characteristics of soil nitrogen, community diversity of nitrogen-fixing bacteria (NFB) and ammonia oxidizers were study with a traditional farmland as control and five treatment alfalfa fields of 1-, 2-, 3-, 4- and 5-year (a) cultivation. The results showed that total nitrogen (TN) significantly increased in 3, 4 and 5 a, alkali-hydrolysable nitrogen (AHN), NH 4 + -N (AN), NO 3 − -N (NN) and SOC was the highest in 3, 5, 3, 4 a, respectively. The dominant phylum of NFB and ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) belonged to Proteobacteria with a higher diversity and abundance in 3 and 4 a. Crenarchaeota was found the dominant phylum of ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) with the highest abundance in the alfalfa field planted for 2 a. The dominant genus of NFB and AOB were Azohydromonas and Nitrosospira, respectively, which showed the highest abundance in the alfalfa fields planted for 2 and 3 a, respectively. The diversity of NFB and AOB showed a significantly positive correlation with TN and AHN (p < 0.05). AOA showed a significantly negative correlation with AN (p < 0.05). Many microbial species cannot be annotated in this study, which deserves future investigation.