Trichoderma Bio-Fertilizer Decreased C Mineralization in Aggregates on the Southern North China Plain

Lixia Zhu, Mengmeng Cao, Chengchen Sang, Tingxuan Li, Yanjun Zhang, Yunxia Chang and Lili Li
Additional contact information
Lixia Zhu: College of Life Science and Agronomy, Zhoukou Normal University, Zhoukou 466001, China
Mengmeng Cao: College of Life Science and Agronomy, Zhoukou Normal University, Zhoukou 466001, China
Chengchen Sang: College of Life Science and Agronomy, Zhoukou Normal University, Zhoukou 466001, China
Tingxuan Li: College of Life Science and Agronomy, Zhoukou Normal University, Zhoukou 466001, China
Yanjun Zhang: College of Life Science and Agronomy, Zhoukou Normal University, Zhoukou 466001, China
Yunxia Chang: College of Life Science and Agronomy, Zhoukou Normal University, Zhoukou 466001, China
Lili Li: College of Life Science and Agronomy, Zhoukou Normal University, Zhoukou 466001, China

Agriculture, 2022, vol. 12, issue 7, 1-14

Abstract: Trichoderma bio-fertilizer is widely used to improve soil fertility and carbon (C) sequestration, but the mechanism for increasing C accumulation remains unclear. In this study, effects of Trichoderma bio-fertilizer on the mineralization of aggregate-associated organic C were investigated in a field experiment with five treatments (bio-fertilizer substitute 0 (CF), 10% (BF10), 20% (BF20), 30% (BF30) and 50% (BF50) chemical fertilizer nitrogen (N)). Aggregate fractions collected by the dry sieving method were used to determine mineralization dynamics of aggregate-associated organic C. The microbial community across aggregate fractions was detected by the phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) method. The results indicated that Trichoderma bio-fertilizer increased organic C stock across aggregate fractions and bulk soil compared with CF. Cumulative mineralization of aggregate-associated organic C increased with the increasing bio-fertilizer application rate. However, the proportion of organic mineralized C was lower in the BF20 treatment except for <0.053 mm aggregate. Moreover, the PLFAs and fungal PLFA/bacterial PLFA first increased and then decreased with increasing bio-fertilizer application rates. Compared with CF, the increases of bacteria PLFA in >2 mm aggregate were 79.7%, 130.0%, 141.0% and 148.5% in BF10, BF20, BF30 and BF50, respectively. Similarly, the PLFAs in 0.25–2, 0.053–0.25 and <0.053 mm aggregates showed a similar trend to that in >2 mm aggregate. Bio-fertilizer increased the value of fungi PLFA/bacteria PLFA but decreased G+ PLFA/G− PLFA, and BF20 shared the greatest changes. Therefore, appropriate Trichoderma bio-fertilizer application was beneficial to improving soil micro-environment and minimizing risks of soil degradation.

Keywords: Trichoderma bio-fertilizer; soil aggregate stability; mineralization; microbial community (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/12/7/1001/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/12/7/1001/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:12:y:2022:i:7:p:1001-:d:860388

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().