Impact of Split Nitrogen Topdressing on Rhizobacteria Community of Winter Wheat

Yu An, Yang Wang, Shuangshuang Liu, Wei Wu, Weiming Wang, Mengmeng Liu, Hui Xiao, Jing Dong, Hongjie Ren, Huasen Xu () and Cheng Xue
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Yu An: College of Resources and Environment Science, Hebei Agricultural University, Baoding 071001, China
Yang Wang: College of Resources and Environment Science, Hebei Agricultural University, Baoding 071001, China
Shuangshuang Liu: College of Resources and Environment Science, Hebei Agricultural University, Baoding 071001, China
Wei Wu: College of Resources and Environment Science, Hebei Agricultural University, Baoding 071001, China
Weiming Wang: College of Resources and Environment Science, Hebei Agricultural University, Baoding 071001, China
Mengmeng Liu: Cultivated Land Quality Monitoring and Protection Center of Hebei Province, Shijiazhuang 050000, China
Hui Xiao: Cultivated Land Quality Monitoring and Protection Center of Hebei Province, Shijiazhuang 050000, China
Jing Dong: Cultivated Land Quality Monitoring and Protection Center of Hebei Province, Shijiazhuang 050000, China
Hongjie Ren: Poverty Relapse Prevention Monitoring Center of Hebei Province, Shijiazhuang 050000, China
Huasen Xu: College of Resources and Environment Science, Hebei Agricultural University, Baoding 071001, China
Cheng Xue: College of Resources and Environment Science, Hebei Agricultural University, Baoding 071001, China

Agriculture, 2025, vol. 15, issue 7, 1-18

Abstract: Previous research on soil bacteria focused on refining the nitrogen (N) rates during the wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.) growth cycle. Studies concerning how additional and split N topdressing applications can affect wheat rhizobacteria are limited. To address this, a two-year field experiment took the cultivar ‘Gaoyou 2018’ of winter wheat as the experimental material from October 2020 to June 2022. Six nitrogen application regimes were established, including no nitrogen application (T1), single topdressing applications of 120 kg ha −1 (T2) and 80 kg ha −1 (T3) at the jointing stage, and split topdressing applications combining 80 kg ha −1 at jointing with 40 kg ha −1 at the booting stage (T4), the flowering stage (T5), and 10th day post-anthesis (T6). The delayed impacts of the split topdressing time on the rhizobacteria diversity were observed in the second year, with T4 exhibiting a 10.5% higher Chao1 index and 2% greater Shannon diversity than T6. Results from both years indicated that the dominant bacterial phylum compositions in the winter wheat rhizosphere were similar across the nitrogen treatments. The additional N treatments fostered 22.9–27.9% Bacteroidita abundance but diminished 24.0–35.9% Planctomycetota , compared to the thenon-fertilized control (T1). T6 increased the α-Proteobacteria abundance by 15.7–22.0% versus T4, while the N topdressing redistribution to the booting stage increased the MND1 genus abundance in Proteobacteria by 31.3–62.5% compared to T2. Redundancy analysis identified that the rhizosphere pH and soil moisture content were the predominant environmental drivers shaping the winter wheat rhizobacteria. Preliminary findings revealed that split nitrogen application during the jointing and booting stages of winter wheat improved the edaphic micro-environment and modulated the proliferation of beneficial rhizobacteria. However, this change was not transmitted to the yield variation. These results suggest that short-term N management strategies may enhance ecological benefits by intensifying soil–plant–microbe interactions, yet they lack direct agronomic yield advantages. Long-term trials are required to establish causality between rhizosphere microbial community dynamics and crop productivity under split N management regimes.

Keywords: nitrogen application regimes; late-stage nitrogen topdressing; rhizosphere; bacterial diversity; bacterial composition (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: 2025
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