Filtered mud improves sugarcane growth and modifies the functional abundance and structure of soil microbial populations

PeerJ

article

Ahmad Yusuf Abubakar¹  Muhammed Mustapha Ibrahim⁴  Caifang Zhang¹  Muhammad Tayyab¹  Nyumah Fallah¹  Ziqi Yang¹  Ziqin Pang¹  Hua Zhang¹ 

[1] College of Agriculture, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University;Key Laboratory of Sugarcane Biology and Genetic Breeding, Ministry of Agriculture, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University;Bioresources Development Centre, National Biotechnology Development Agency;College of Resources and Environment, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University;Department of Soil Science, University of Agriculture Makurdi

关键词: Soil fertility;    Bacteria;    Fungi;    Soil enzymes;    High-throughput sequencing;    Sugarcane;    Nitrogen;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.12753

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Inra

【 摘 要 】

Background Exploring high-quality organic amendments has been a focus of sustainable agriculture. Filtered mud (FM), a sugar factory waste derived from sugarcane stems, could be an alternative organic amendment for sugarcane production. However, the effects of its application proportions on soil fertility, nutrient cycling, structure of soil bacterial and fungal communities, and the growth of sugarcane in clay-loam soils remain unexplored. Methods Three application proportions of FM: (FM1-(FM: Soil at 1:4), FM2-(FM: Soil at 2:3), and FM3-(FM: Soil at 3:2)) were evaluated on sugarcane growth and soil nutrient cycling. High throughput sequencing was also employed to explore soil microbial dynamics. Results We observed that FM generally increased the soil’s nutritional properties while improving NO3− retention compared to the control, resulting in increased growth parameters of sugarcane. Specifically, FM1 increased the concentration of NH4+−N, the N fraction preferably taken up by sugarcane, which was associated with an increase in the plant height, and more improved growth properties, among other treatments. An increase in the proportion of FM also increased the activity of soil nutrient cycling enzymes; urease, phosphatase, and β-glucosidase. High throughput sequencing revealed that FM reduced the diversity of soil bacteria while having insignificant effects on fungal diversity. Although increasing FM rates reduced the relative abundance of the phyla Proteobacteria, its class members, the Gammaproteobacteria and Betaproteobacteria containing some N-cycling related genera, were stimulated. Also, FM stimulated the abundance of beneficial and lignocellulose degrading organisms. These included the bacterial phyla Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Acidobacteria, Chloroflexi, and the fungal phylum Ascomycota. The distribution of the soil microbial community under FM rates was regulated by the changes in soil pH and the availability of soil nutrients. Since FM1 showed more promise in improving the growth properties of sugarcane, it could be more economical and sustainable for sugarcane production in clay-loam soils.

【 授权许可】

CC BY