Elsevier

Pedosphere

Volume 32, Issue 4, August 2022, Pages 637-648
Pedosphere

Effects of long-term fertilization with different substitution ratios of organic fertilizer on paddy soil

https://doi.org/10.1016/S1002-0160(21)60047-4Get rights and content

ABSTRACT

In recent years, the abuse of chemical fertilizers has caused numerous environmental problems, such as soil acidification and compaction. Replacing chemical fertilizers with organic fertilizers can effectively alleviate these problems. However, the effects of alternative organic fertilizers remain unclear. To explore the effects of organic fertilizer substitution on rice yield and paddy soil physicochemical properties and bacterial community structure, we conducted a 5-year experiment using different proportions of organic fertilizer substitution in a double-cropping rice field in Jiangxi, China. Our results showed that replacing chemical fertilizers with organic fertilizers can reduce soil acidification, increase soil organic matter content, nutrient contents, and enzyme activities, improve soil physicochemical properties and microbial community, and enhance soil metabolism. Appropriate organic substitution also had positive effects on rice production. These findings enhance our understanding of the effects of different alternative organic fertilization methods and have important theoretical significance for the promotion of the use of organic fertilizers in the future.

Section snippets

INTRODUCTION

Crops must continuously obtain nutrients from soil during their growth and development. Increasing human population size and reduction of arable land have led to an increase in the demand for food (Inselsbacher et al., 2010). Under such circumstances, farmers have prioritized grain yield over grain quality, with large amounts of chemical fertilizers being used to increase grain production. Brown rice quality has been found to be negatively correlated with the number of root tips, and the use of

Description of the long-term experiment and sample collection

A long-term field fertilizer experiment was conducted in an experimental rice field located at the Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Gao'an, Jiangxi Province, China (28°26′ N, 115°14′ E) (Fig. S1a, see Supplementary Material for Fig. S1a). By the time of sampling, fertilization had been ongoing for five years. The crop succession was double-cropped rice. The early rice was transplanted in late April and harvested in mid-July. The late rice was transplanted in late July and harvested in late

Crop yield and soil properties under different fertilizations

To explore the effects of different fertilization treatments on rice yield, the yields of early and late rice in 2018 were calculated (Fig. 1). For both early and late rice, the yield without fertilization was the lowest, reaching 3 263 and 5 025 kg ha-1, respectively. Application of urea and various organic alternatives significantly increased rice yield (P < 0.01). The yields of early and late rice treated with urea were 6 407 and 7 276 kg ha-1, respectively. The highest yield of early rice

DISCUSSION

Chemical fertilizers are widely used in crop cultivation and significantly increase crop yield, but many studies have shown that long-term use of chemical fertilizers will cause soil acidification, soil compaction, and other hazards (Guo et al., 2010; Liu et al., 2010). With the development of green agriculture, the use of organic fertilizer has been widely promoted. Many previous studies have also shown that long-term use of organic fertilizer can significantly increase crop yield (Liang et al

CONCLUSIONS

Soil physical and chemical properties, bacterial community composition, and bacterial community function changed significantly after the application of different proportions of organic fertilizer as a substitute of inorganic fertilizer. Applying organic fertilizer can reduce soil acidification, supplement soil nutrients, increase soil OM content and abundance of beneficial microorganisms, and enhance the functions of soil microorganisms related to C and N cycles. Soil physical and chemical

CONTRIBUTION OF AUTHORS

Weifeng Song and Aiping Shu contributed equally to this work.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This study was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (Nos. 2017YFD0301601 and 2016YFD0200402), National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31560582), Beijing Key Laboratory of Biodiversity and Organic Farming, China (No. BOF201902), and the funds of the Shandong “Double Tops” Program, China.

SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL

Supplementary material for this article can be found in the online version.

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