Affiliation:
1. State Key Laboratory of Nutrient Use and Management, Institute of Agricultural Resources and Environment, Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Jinan 250100, China
2. Dezhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Dezhou 253015, China
Abstract
Controlled-release nitrogen fertilizer (CRNF) has been proven to surpass common urea by mitigating nutrient losses, enhancing soil quality, and improving crop productivity. However, the long-term effects of CRNF on soil biological properties are not well understood. Here, a 12-year field experiment was conducted with five treatments: no N fertilizer (PK); the split application of urea at the farmer’s practice rate (FP) and the optimal rate (OPT); the one-time application of CRNF at the same rate as the OPT (CRNF); and a 20% reduced rate of the OPT (0.8CRNF). Soil samples were collected during the maize tasseling and filling stages; high-throughput sequencing and the PICRUSt2 method were employed to determine the bacterial community and its functional potential. The results showed that CRNF significantly increased alkaline hydrolysis N by 14.10% and 9.45% compared to OPT during the tasseling and filling stages, respectively. This increase in soil available N resulted in a significant increase in bacterial diversity of 2.09% and 2.35% compared with the FP and OPT, respectively. The bacterial community in the FP and OPT changed markedly between the tasseling and filling stages, with many bacterial species at the ASV and genus levels showing variations in relative abundance. In contrast, CRNF and 0.8CRNF exhibited stable N-cycling functions, as indicated by the lower variations in nitrate reductase and predicted N-cycling functional genes between the tasseling and filling stages. The obtained results suggest that CRNF application can enhance soil N supply, promote the formation of stable bacterial communities, and maintain stable N-cycling functions.
Funder
National Key Research and Development Program of China
Earmarked Fund for China Agriculture Research System
Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province of China
Key Research and Development Program (Science and Technology Demonstration Project) of Shandong Province
Subject
Agronomy and Crop Science
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