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Higher rates of nitrogen fertilization decrease soil enzyme activities, microbial functional diversity and nitrification capacity in a Chinese polytunnel greenhouse vegetable land

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Abstract

Little is known about effects of high nitrogen (N) fertilization on soil chemical properties, enzyme and microbial activities involved in N and C transformation. Soil EC, pH, mineral N, three enzyme activities, nitrification capacity, and microbial functional diversity were evaluated under conventional N rate (270 or 300 kg  N  ha−1 season−1, N4), 80% (N3), 60% (N2), 40% (N1) and 0% (N0) of N4 during a 2-year cucumber/tomato rotation in polytunnel greenhouse lands in Eastern China. Soil EC, NH +4 -N and NO −3 -N were significantly increased, whilst pH, activities of dehydrogenase, urease and neutral phosphatase, nitrification capacity, and microbial functional diversity decreased significantly with N application rate. Microbial diversity indices deducted from the C-source utilization pattern were significantly lower under the highest N4 rate in the same vegetable season, but varied with seasons among N rates. Both principal component analysis and C substrate utilization patterns displayed significant separation of soil microbial communities between the higher N4 or N3 and the lower N0, N1 and N2 rates. Our results indicated that a 40% reduction of the conventional N fertilization rate was practical to reduce excess N input while maintaining the sustainability of such greenhouse-based intensive vegetable systems in China’s Yangtze River Delta.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a Knowledge Innovation Project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Kzcx2-yw-408), Key Projects in the National Science & Technology Pillar Program in the Eleventh Five-year Plan Period (2006BAD17B03) and Natural Science Foundation of the Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions of China (09KJB210003). The authors thank two anonymous reviewers and Dr. Hans Lambers, the Responsible Editor of Plant and Soil, for their valuable comments on the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, 210008, China

    Weishou Shen, Xiangui Lin, Weiming Shi, Ju Min, Nan Gao, Huayong Zhang & Rui Yin

  2. College of Chemistry and Environmental Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, 210097, China

    Weishou Shen

  3. School of Plant Biology, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, 6009, Australia

    Xinhua He

  4. Northern Research Station, USDA Forest Service and School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI, 49931, USA

    Xinhua He

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  1. Weishou Shen
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  2. Xiangui Lin
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Correspondence to Xiangui Lin or Xinhua He.

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Responsible Editor: Hans Lambers.

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Shen, W., Lin, X., Shi, W. et al. Higher rates of nitrogen fertilization decrease soil enzyme activities, microbial functional diversity and nitrification capacity in a Chinese polytunnel greenhouse vegetable land. Plant Soil 337, 137–150 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-010-0511-2

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