Pedosphere 35(2): 299--311, 2025
ISSN 1002-0160/CN 32-1315/P
©2025 Soil Science Society of China
Published by Elsevier B.V. and Science Press
| Long-term conservation tillage changes the diversity, assembly and network stability of soil diazotrophic community |
Ling MA1,2, Guixiang ZHOU2, Jiabao ZHANG2 , Zhongjun JIA2,3, Hongtao ZOU1, Lin CHEN2, Congzhi ZHANG2, Donghao MA2, Changdong HAN1,2 |
1 College of Land and Environment, Shenyang Agricultural University, National Engineering Research Center for Efficient Utilization of Soil and Fertilizer Resources, Key Laboratory of Arable Land Conservation in Northeast China, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Shenyang 110866 (China)
2 State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008 (China)
3 Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130102 (China) |
| ABSTRACT |
| Diazotrophs make important contributions to nitrogen (N) inputs in agricultural ecosystems. However, strong evidence of the effects of conservation tillage (CT) on the coexistence and assembly of soil diazotrophic community and related mechanisms is lacking. Here, a long-term experiment was conducted to study the impacts of CT on the coexistence and assembly patterns of soil diazotrophic community in Lishu County, Jilin Province, North China. Compared to traditional tillage (control, CK), CT significantly reduced both the N fixation rate in top 0-10 cm soil and the alpha diversity of diazotrophic community while increasing the density of diazotrophic and overall bacterial communities. Conservation tillage also reduced the competitive relationships within the diazotrophic community and enhanced network stability. Furthermore, diazotroph assembly was dominated by deterministic processes (relative influence = 68.63%) under CK and stochastic processes (relative influence = 58.82%) under CT. Soil depth and total N (TN) were identified as crucial predictors shaping the assembly processes of diazotrophic community under different tillage practices. The relative influence of stochastic processes on diazotrophic community under CT varied more significantly with increasing soil depth. Overall, tillage practice and soil depth had significant influences on the coexistence and assembly processes of soil diazotrophic community. Moreover, long-term CT may impact the selection of N fixation agents and the specific taxa associated with N fixers. Our results indicated that in CT systems, relatively sufficient nutrient availability led to a reduction in interspecies competition, an increase in network stability, and a greater influence of stochastic processes on community assembly. These findings may help us better understand biological N fixation in sustainable agricultural systems. |
| Key Words: alpha diversity,biological nitrogen fixation,community assembly,deterministic processes,nitrogen fixation rate,soil diazotroph,stochastic processes |
| Citation: Ma L, Zhou G X, Zhang J B, Jia Z J, Zou H T, Chen L, Zhang C Z, Ma D H, Han C D. 2025. Long-term conservation tillage changes the diversity, assembly and network stability of soil diazotrophic community. Pedosphere. 35(2): 299-311. |
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