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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Ames, Iowa » National Laboratory for Agriculture and The Environment » Soil, Water & Air Resources Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #352745
Research Project: Managing Carbon and Nutrients in Midwestern U.S. Agroecosystems for Enhanced Soil Health and Environmental Quality

Location: Soil, Water & Air Resources Research

Title: Chemical nature of soil organic carbon under different long-term fertilization regimes is coupled with changes in the bacterial community in a Calcaric Fluvisol

Author
item LI, DANDAN - Chinese Academy Of Sciences
item CHEN, LIN - Chinese Academy Of Sciences
item XU, JISHENG - Chinese Academy Of Sciences
item MA, LEI - Chinese Academy Of Sciences
item Olk, Daniel - Dan
item ZHAO, BINGZI - Chinese Academy Of Sciences
item ZHANG, JIABAO - Chinese Academy Of Sciences
item XIN, XIULI - Chinese Academy Of Sciences

Submitted to: Biology and Fertility of Soils
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/2/2018
Publication Date: 10/12/2018
Citation: Li, D., Chen, L., Xu, J., Ma, L., Olk, D.C., Zhao, B., Zhang, J., Xin, X. 2018. Chemical nature of soil organic carbon under different long-term fertilization regimes is coupled with changes in the bacterial community in a Calcaric Fluvisol. Biology and Fertility of Soils. 54:999-1012. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-018-1319-0.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-018-1319-0

Interpretive Summary: Carbon contributes to several important properties of soil. Carbon behavior and cycling, in turn, seem likely to be affected by its composition, but we have limited understanding of how its composition can be determined by other factors, including microorganisms. We compared some characteristics of soil carbon to the most common bacteria found in the soil after different fertilizers had been applied for 27 years. We associated certain characteristics of soil carbon with specific soil bacteria for each of the fertilizers. These results provide new information regarding the factors of carbon accumulation and composition in soil. They will assist researchers who study the cycling of stable soil carbon and land managers who wish to promote carbon accumulation in the soil by applying fertilizers.

Technical Abstract: Fertilization can potentially affect both the chemical structure of soil organic carbon (SOC) and soil microbial communities. Questions remain whether the characteristics of SOC chemical structure may link to specific microbial taxa. Quantitative 13C multiple cross-polarization magic-angle spinning 13C nuclear magnetic resonance (13C MultiCP/MAS) and 16S rRNA gene sequencing were used to explore the potential links between SOC functional groups and specific bacterial taxa in a Calcaric Fluvisol having different fertilization treatments over a 27-year period. They are organic matter fertilizer (OM) only, mineral fertilizer pairings of NPK, NP, PK and NK, and an unamended control. Statistical analyses of our results grouped the SOC chemical structures and bacterial community compositions into four distinct classes: OM, NPK, NP plus PK, and NK plus Control. In NMR spectra of the OM treatment, the most abundant chemical functional groups were aromatic C-O and OCH3, and the least common were alkyl C and OCH. These traits were associated with enhanced abundance of members from iii1-15 (Acidobacteria Gp6), Acidobacteria Gp5, Cytophagaceae and Chitinophagaceae (mainly Flavisolibacter), and Bacillus, possibly due to increased SOC and soil available phosphorus (AP) contents. In NMR spectra of the NP plus PK class, the most abundant functional group was OCH and the least abundant was aromatic C-C. They were associated with enhanced abundance of unclassified members of Chloracidobacteria and Syntrophobacteraceae, possibly through increased total soil phosphorous (TP) content. The most prominent functional group in the NK plus Control class was aromatic C-C, and it was associated with decreased abundance of an unclassified member of Syntrophobacteraceae, possibly through decreased TP content. The NPK treatment had no obvious chemical characteristics to distinguish itself from the other five fertilization treatments, but its bacterial community differences from the other classes were described by Bacillus and unclassified members of Cytophagaceae, which was possibly driven by the soil AP and SOC contents. We conclude that fertilization-induced changes in SOC chemical structure features were strongly associated with specific microbial taxa, which in turn were affected by changes in soil properties from fertilization.