Steering microbiomes by organic amendments towards climate-smart agricultural soils

TY - JOUR

T1 - Steering microbiomes by organic amendments towards climate-smart agricultural soils

AU - Brenzinger, K.

AU - Costa, Ohana Y.A.

AU - Ho, Adrian

AU - Koorneef, Guusje

AU - Robroek, Bjorn J.M.

AU - Molenaar, Douwe

AU - Korthals, Gerard

AU - Bodelier, Paul

N1 - 7285, ME; Data archiving: dryad, ena

PY - 2021

Y1 - 2021

N2 - We steered the soil microbiome via applications of organic residues (mix of cover crop residues, sewage sludge + compost, and digestate + compost) to enhance multiple ecosystem services in line with climate-smart agriculture. Our result highlights the potential to reduce greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions from agricultural soils by the application of specific organic amendments (especially digestate + compost). Unexpectedly, also the addition of mineral fertilizer in our mesocosms led to similar combined GHG emissions than one of the specific organic amendments. However, the application of organic amendments has the potential to increase soil C, which is not the case when using mineral fertilizer. While GHG emissions from cover crop residues were significantly higher compared to mineral fertilizer and the other organic amendments, crop growth was promoted. Furthermore, all organic amendments induced a shift in the diversity and abundances of key microbial groups. We show that organic amendments have the potential to not only lower GHG emissions by modifying the microbial community abundance and composition, but also favour crop growth-promoting microorganisms. This modulation of the microbial community by organic amendments bears the potential to turn soils into more climate-smart soils in comparison to the more conventional use of mineral fertilizers.

AB - We steered the soil microbiome via applications of organic residues (mix of cover crop residues, sewage sludge + compost, and digestate + compost) to enhance multiple ecosystem services in line with climate-smart agriculture. Our result highlights the potential to reduce greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions from agricultural soils by the application of specific organic amendments (especially digestate + compost). Unexpectedly, also the addition of mineral fertilizer in our mesocosms led to similar combined GHG emissions than one of the specific organic amendments. However, the application of organic amendments has the potential to increase soil C, which is not the case when using mineral fertilizer. While GHG emissions from cover crop residues were significantly higher compared to mineral fertilizer and the other organic amendments, crop growth was promoted. Furthermore, all organic amendments induced a shift in the diversity and abundances of key microbial groups. We show that organic amendments have the potential to not only lower GHG emissions by modifying the microbial community abundance and composition, but also favour crop growth-promoting microorganisms. This modulation of the microbial community by organic amendments bears the potential to turn soils into more climate-smart soils in comparison to the more conventional use of mineral fertilizers.

KW - national

KW - Plan_S-Compliant_OA

KW - Agricultural soils

KW - Plant growth

KW - Microbial community abundance and compositions

KW - Flux measurements

KW - Greenhouse gases

KW - Organic amendment

U2 - 10.1007/s00374-021-01599-5

DO - 10.1007/s00374-021-01599-5

M3 - Article

SN - 0178-2762

VL - 57

SP - 1053

EP - 1074

JO - Biology and Fertility of Soils

JF - Biology and Fertility of Soils

IS - 8

ER -