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- Title
Plant–microbe networks in soil are weakened by century‐long use of inorganic fertilizers.
- Authors
Huang, Ruilin; McGrath, Steve P.; Hirsch, Penny R.; Clark, Ian M.; Storkey, Jonathan; Wu, Liyou; Zhou, Jizhong; Liang, Yuting
- Abstract
Summary: Understanding the changes in plant–microbe interactions is critically important for predicting ecosystem functioning in response to human‐induced environmental changes such as nitrogen (N) addition. In this study, the effects of a century‐long fertilization treatment (> 150 years) on the networks between plants and soil microbial functional communities, detected by GeoChip, in grassland were determined in the Park Grass Experiment at Rothamsted Research, UK. Our results showed that plants and soil microbes have a consistent response to long‐term fertilization—both richness and diversity of plants and soil microbes are significantly decreased, as well as microbial functional genes involved in soil carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) cycling. The network‐based analyses showed that long‐term fertilization decreased the complexity of networks between plant and microbial functional communities in terms of node numbers, connectivity, network density and the clustering coefficient. Similarly, within the soil microbial community, the strength of microbial associations was also weakened in response to long‐term fertilization. Mantel path analysis showed that soil C and N contents were the main factors affecting the network between plants and microbes. Our results indicate that century‐long fertilization weakens the plant–microbe networks, which is important in improving our understanding of grassland ecosystem functions and stability under long‐term agriculture management.
- Subjects
UNITED Kingdom; GRASSLAND soils; PLANT-microbe relationships; PLANT diversity; PLANT-soil relationships; SOILS; MICROBIAL genes
- Publication
Microbial Biotechnology, 2019, Vol 12, Issue 6, p1464
- ISSN
1751-7907
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/1751-7915.13487