Long-term inorganic fertilizer use influences bacterial communities in Mollisols of Northeast China based on high-throughput sequencing and network analyses

The effects of chemical fertilizers on soil microbial communities have been well studied in a variety of terrestrial systems. However, the individual effects of N, P, and K fertilizers and their combinations (NP, NK, PK and NPK) on bacterial community structure in black soils have not been fully understood. In this study, we applied Illumina MiSeq sequencing and network analysis targeting 16S rRNA gene to comprehensively characterize the effects of 35 years of these inorganic fertilizers on community diversity and composition in the black soil. The results of α-diversity indices and principal coordinates analysis (PCoA) indicated that the N-addition treatments had larger effects than the others. The network analysis showed that the N fertilizer shifted the network structure, topological roles of individual OTUs and key bacterial populations, contributing to a simple network under the N-fertilizer treatments compared with non-N fertilizers treatments. These findings suggested that N fertilizer reduced the bacterial diversity and simplified the interactions among key bacterial members in Mollisol. The results of this study could provide basis for further researches balancing different N application levels, the bacterial community network and crop yield to maintain the ecosystem function and stability.

Abbreviations: N: nitrogen fertilizer; P: phosphorus fertilizer; K: potassium fertilizer; NP: nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers; NK: nitrogen and potassium fertilizers; PK: phosphorus and potassium fertilizers; NPK: phosphorus and potassium fertilizers; TC: total carbon; TN: total nitrogen; TP: total phosphorus; TK: total potassium; AP: available phosphorus; AK: available potassium; OTUs: operational taxonomic Units; ACE: abundance-based coverage estimator; Chao1: estimated OTU richness; PCoA: principal coordinates analysis