Research progress in soil fertility

(1) Soil fertility and soil carbon sequestration

Based on certain long term field experiments in Jiangsu province, the team had assessed the effects of different nutrient management, on yield and SOC sequestration potential, and established optimal methods to increase the soil organic matter content.

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Fig. 1 . Trends in soil organic carbon (SOC) changes under various fertilization treatments over the long-term experiment. 

(2) Nutrient research of sweet potato and its soil quality management

The team had evaluated the soil quality cultivated with sweet potato in east China and southeast China special sweet potato sites which grown in the marginal area. Using new biological technology, the team had screened different potassium utilization and absorption efficiency cultivars, and established the diagnose methods for K status in sweet potato, and research the soil microbe flora responses by different nutrient inputs and management methods.

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Fig. 2. Comparisons of the hexose, sucrose and starch concentrations in blades, petioles and roots in Nan88, Ji22 and Xu28 rooted single sweet potato leaves. Significant differences between the respective values of the K-sufficient (SK) and K-deficient (DK) treatments in the same genotype with different lowercase letters are marked by ** (p ≤ 0.05) according to Tukey’s test. Means ± SE (n = 4).

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Fig.3. Diazotrophic community composition (based on unweighted unifrac distance) in different N fertilizer treatment under sweet potato-wheat rotation system (A); Venn diagram for N0-treated (N0), N1-treated (N1), N2-treated (N2) and N3-treated (N3) collected from sweet potato soil sample (B); Co-occurrence network interactions of soil diazotrophic community taxa in sweet potato-wheat rotation system. The edges refer to significant (P-value < 0.01 and R-value > 0.7) correlations. The size of each node is proportional to the relative abundance (C).

(3) A lot of research has been carried out on the agronomic, soil and ecological effects of straw returning in rice-wheat rotation system. It was found that the allelopathic effects of straw returning could inhibit the growth and development of rice and wheat. Straw returning significantly changed the composition and activity of soil microbial community, and consequently changed the greenhouse gas emissions and composition in paddy fields.

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Fig.4. Application of N fertilizer significantly changes in soil diazotrophic community structural, and low N treatments (N0 and N1) was taxonomically distinct from high N treatments (N2 and N3). Soil samples collected from N0 and N1 treatment harbored a greater number of diazotrophic OTUs when compared to soil samples collected from N2 and N3 treatment. Using network analysis, we found distinct networks in low N treatments and high N treatments. In particular, 33 edges appeared to be negative in low N treatment, which was 4.1-fold higher than the 8 negative edges in high N treatment. Therefore, we suggest that N starvation can lead to more conflicting interactions among the nifH-harboring microbes.

 

Publication:

Di Wu, Yanfang Feng, Lihong Xue, Manqiang Liu, Bei Yang, Linzhang Yang*. 2019. Biochar combined with vermicompost increases crop production while reducing ammonia and nitrous oxide emissions from a paddy soil. Pedosphere, 29(1): 82-94.

Nin Wang, JianGuang Yu *, YaHui Zhao, et al., 2018. Straw enhanced CO2 and CH4 but decreased N2O emissions from flooded paddy soils: Changes in microbial community compositions. Atmospheric Environment, 174, 171-179.

Ning Wang, ZhiZhou Chang *, XiMei Xue, JianGuang Yu, et al., 2017. Biochar decreases nitrogen oxide and enhances methane emissions via altering microbial community composition of anaerobic paddy soil. Science of the Total Environment, 581-582, 689-696.

Ping Wang & Jidong Wang, Zhang Hui, Dong Yue, Yongchun Zhang. 2019. The role of iron oxides in the preservation of soil organic matter under long-term fertilization. Journal of Soils and Sediments, 19(2):588-598.

Cong Xu, Xiao H, Ru S, et al., 2019. Crop straw incorporation interacts with N fertilizer on N2O emissions in an intensively cropped farmland. Geoderma, 341, 129-137.

Jidong Wang, Kaihua Wang, Xuejun Wang, Yongchun Zhang *, Yuchun Ai *, Jianguang Yu. 2018. Carbon sequestration and yields with long-term use of inorganic fertilizers and organic manure in a six-crop rotation system. Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems, 111:87-98.

Jidong Wang, Guopeng Zhu, Yue Dong, Hui Zhang, Zed Rengel,Yuchun Ai*, Yongchun Zhang*. 2018. Potassium starvation affects biomass partitioning and sink-source responses in three sweet potato genotypes with contrasting potassium-use efficiency. Crop and Pasture Science, 69(5) 506-514.

Jidong Wang, Penfu Hou, Guopeng Zhu, Yue Dong, Hui Zhang, Hongbo Ma, Xianju Xu, Yunwang Nin, Yuchun Ai*, Yongchun Zhang*. 2017. Potassium partitioning and redistribution as a function of K-use efficiency under K deficiency in sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.). Field Crops Research. (211): 147-154.