Applied Soil Ecology最新文献

{"title":"Poplar–wheat intercropping and fertilizer application significantly improve soil bacterial community characteristic and nutrient contents","authors":"Cheng Xu ,&nbsp;Xiaopeng Liu ,&nbsp;Zhuangzhuang Qian ,&nbsp;Tao Yang ,&nbsp;Bo Wang ,&nbsp;Xiaomin Ge ,&nbsp;Luozhong Tang","doi":"10.1016/j.apsoil.2025.106415","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.apsoil.2025.106415","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Intercropping can significantly influence soil microbial diversity and nutrient content. However, the effects of intercropping with different fertilizer application amounts on soil bacterial community characteristic and nutrient contents remain unclear. A pot experiment with three planting patterns (P (poplar monoculture; <em>Populus deltoides</em>), W (wheat monoculture; <em>Triticum aestivum</em>) and PW (poplar–wheat intercropping)) and three fertilization rates of 0 g, 5 g, and 10 g compound fertilizer (10 kg soil per pot; N:P₂O₅:K₂O ratio of 15 %:15 %:15 %) was performed. Soil properties and bacterial community were analyzed under different treatments. PW pattern significantly increased SOC (soil organic carbon), TN (total nitrogen), SMBC (soil microbial biomass carbon), SOC:TN, SMBC:SMBN (soil microbial biomass nitrogen), and qMBC (microbial biomass carbon quotient) and greater UR (urease) and SU (sucrase) activities than W and P patterns did, with the highest values occurring in 10 g fertilizer treatment (<em>P</em> &lt; 0.05). The shifts in bacterial community composition associated with PW (i.e., increases in Pseudomonadota, Acidobacteriota, and <em>Pseudarthrobacter</em> abundances) for bacteria were positively associated with SOC, TN, SMBC, SMBN, qMBC, qMBN, UR and SU (<em>P</em> &lt; 0.05). Soil water content was the dominant factor affecting soil bacterial community by mantel analysis. Intercropping significantly increased soil bacteria related to nutrient transformation. Fertilizer application significantly affected soil bacterial diversity; however, planting pattern significantly mainly affected soil bacterial community composition. Besides, fertilizer application can reduce the differences in bacterial diversity among planting patterns. In conclusion, these findings revealed the mechanism by which intercropping and fertilizer application improve soil bacterial community characteristic and nutrient content. Our study serves as a reference for enhancing soil quality through land management practices.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8099,"journal":{"name":"Applied Soil Ecology","volume":"215 ","pages":"Article 106415"},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144906972","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Strong nutrient limitation of rhizosphere microorganisms lowers vegetable yield sensitivity to fertilization regimes","authors":"Donglan He ,&nbsp;Wenjie Wan","doi":"10.1016/j.apsoil.2025.106418","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.apsoil.2025.106418","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Rhizospheres recruit microorganisms to mediate nutrient transformation and enhance plant productivity. However, understanding is insufficient regarding the linkage between rhizosphere microbial nutrient limitation and crop yield sensitivity to fertilization regimes. Three kinds of <em>Brassica</em> vegetables (i.e., <em>B. pekinensis</em> L., <em>B. campestris</em> L., and <em>B. chinensis</em> L.) were cultivated to estimate sensitivity of vegetable yield to fertilization regimes, and molecular and statistical tools were adopted to disentangle landscape patterns of vegetable rhizosphere microorganisms. We found yields of <em>Brassica</em> vegetables responded largely differently to organic and inorganic fertilization treatments, and yield sensitivity to fertilization regimes was <em>B. pekinensis</em> L. &gt; <em>B. campestris</em> L. &gt; <em>B. chinensis</em> L. There were heterogeneous rhizosphere microenvironments between <em>Brassica</em> vegetables, showing significant differences in soil physicochemical properties, enzymatic activity, abundances of phosphorus-cycling genes, and community composition of rhizosphere bacteria and fungi. Rhizosphere microorganisms of <em>Brassica</em> vegetables displayed phosphorus limitation, and stronger microbial carbon and phosphorus limitations were found for rhizosphere of <em>B. chinensis</em> L. than rhizospheres of <em>B. campestris</em> L. and <em>B. pekinensis</em> L. Different vegetable rhizospheres displayed heterogenous landscape patterns of bacteria and fungi, showing notable differences in diversity and community structure as well as large divergence in coexistence patterns within bacteria and within fungi. Stochastic processes dominated community assemblages of rhizosphere bacteria and fungi, and rhizosphere bacteria and fungi showed opposite environmental constraint responding to vegetable yield sensitivity. Our results emphasized that a stronger nutrient limitation of rhizosphere microorganisms resulted in a more sensitive vegetable yield to fertilization regimes. Our findings enrich knowledge on nutrient limitation and diversity maintenance of microorganisms in vegetable rhizospheres, and these findings might guide precise fertilization to adjust rhizosphere microbial nutrient limitation to promote vegetable yield.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8099,"journal":{"name":"Applied Soil Ecology","volume":"215 ","pages":"Article 106418"},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144895412","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Elucidating the suppressive role of native bacterial traits against root-knot nematodes to control plant-parasitic effect in serpentine hostile rhizosphere soil","authors":"Aslia Asif ,&nbsp;Liang-Yu Lin ,&nbsp;Ping-Chi Hsu ,&nbsp;Suprokash Koner ,&nbsp;Zeng-Yei Hseu ,&nbsp;Tsui-Kang Hsu ,&nbsp;Shih-Wei Huang ,&nbsp;Bing-Mu Hsu","doi":"10.1016/j.apsoil.2025.106417","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.apsoil.2025.106417","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Root-knot nematodes (RKNs) pose a major threat to natural vegetation and agricultural productivity worldwide. The plant rhizosphere harbors rich and diverse bacterial communities, however, the role of native rhizobacterial traits in plant protection against RKN parasitism remain unclear. This study investigated how rhizobacteria associated with serpentine-adapted plants suppress RKNs under extreme edaphic stress. Results showed that serpentine soil factors and RKN presence altered bacterial community assembly, and edaphic stress intensified RKN parasitic effects. Increased bacterial diversity and abundance were strongly correlated with a reduction in the abundance of RKN. Key bacterial taxa such as <em>Pseudomonas putida</em>, <em>P. parafulva</em>, <em>P. straminea</em>, and <em>Burkholderia gladioli</em> were enriched and linked with the suppression of <em>Meloidogyne javanica</em> and <em>M. ethiopica</em>. Functional pathways related to chitin degradation, chorismate metabolism, L-arginine biosynthesis, teichoic acid biosynthesis, and catechol degradation to beta-ketoadipate were significantly enriched and linked to plant protection against RKN infections and parasitic effects (**<em>p</em> &lt; 0.01; *<em>p</em> &lt; 0.05) in rhizosphere soils. Structural equation modeling (SEM) showed that heavy metals (HMs) and nutrients accounted for 78 % and 86 % of the variance (R² = 0.78; R² = 0.86) in rhizobacterial and RKN communities, respectively. Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) revealed that HM stress and nutrient availability influenced rhizobacteria–RKN interactions, while pH, moisture content (MC), and electrical conductivity (EC) significantly regulated their composition and distribution. These findings highlight the ecological importance of native rhizobacteria in mitigating plant nematode parasitism and offer a sustainable strategy for managing nematode stress in challenging soil ecosystems.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8099,"journal":{"name":"Applied Soil Ecology","volume":"215 ","pages":"Article 106417"},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144895411","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Effects of patch-burn grazing on above- and belowground communities in invaded grasslands","authors":"Lennel A. Camuy-Vélez ,&nbsp;Kevin Sedivec ,&nbsp;Esben Kjaer ,&nbsp;Torre Hovick ,&nbsp;Samiran Banerjee","doi":"10.1016/j.apsoil.2025.106413","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.apsoil.2025.106413","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Grasslands are threatened by invasive plants, but targeted management strategies can help mitigate invaders and restore biodiversity and ecosystem functions. Patch-burn grazing, which combines prescribed fire with livestock grazing, has been proposed as a strategy to promote heterogeneity and restore invaded grasslands. Nonetheless, the immediate and legacy effects of fire and grazing on plant composition and belowground dynamics in patch-burn systems remain underexplored. In a 64-ha pasture, we found that soil fungi and protists, but not bacteria showed significant shifts in response to patch-burn grazing over a 4-year fire return interval. Invasive grasses, such as Kentucky bluegrass, exhibited faster recovery than native grasses, and this recovery was associated with specific microbial taxa. For example, members of specific bacterial orders such as Geobacterales, Cantharellales, and Corticiales were associated with different recovery stages. We found an increase in fungal and protist saprotrophs and a decrease in mycorrhizal fungi. Our stochasticity and determinism analysis revealed that patch-burn grazing had a deterministic impact on fungal communities. Microbial network connectivity and betweenness centrality changed in response to fire legacies with members of the Cercozoa protists emerging as keystone taxa. These findings highlight how patch-burn grazing influences plant and microbial succession in invaded grasslands. Overall, our study reports that while native plant species may benefit from patch-burn in the short term, invasive grasses recover rapidly after two years. Therefore, despite the potential of patch-burn management, further research is necessary before this strategy can be widely adopted.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8099,"journal":{"name":"Applied Soil Ecology","volume":"215 ","pages":"Article 106413"},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144893098","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Microbiome-driven machine learning for predicting suppressiveness to Rhizoctonia solani in organic-amended soils","authors":"Victor Hugo Buttrós ,&nbsp;Viola Kurm ,&nbsp;Wilian Soares Lacerda ,&nbsp;Paulo H.S. Guimarães ,&nbsp;Lucas William Mendes ,&nbsp;Joyce Dória","doi":"10.1016/j.apsoil.2025.106409","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.apsoil.2025.106409","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study introduces a microbiome-integrated machine learning framework to predict soil suppressiveness against <em>Rhizoctonia solani</em>, a destructive fungal pathogen in crops. Combining bacterial and fungal community data, edaphic factors, and disease severity metrics, this study developed robust classification and regression models using Artificial Neural Networks, Random Forest, and Support Vector Machines. Random Forest emerged as the top-performing model, achieving the highest accuracy and explanatory power in classification (98.56 %) and regression (95.40 %) tasks. The study also introduced the Biocontrol Index (BCI), which integrates microbial abundance and predictive importance into interpretable indices linked to soil suppressiveness. Additionally, ecological indices, including alpha diversity, evenness, and beta diversity, were calculated per sample to provide insights into microbial community structure and dynamics. Key predictive features included soil amendments with high microbial activity, carbon-to‑nitrogen ratios, and nutrient levels like calcium and manganese. This integration of microbiome data with machine learning offers a novel, data-driven approach to tackle the high dimensionality of amplicon-sequencing data while also understanding and predicting soil suppressiveness.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8099,"journal":{"name":"Applied Soil Ecology","volume":"214 ","pages":"Article 106409"},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144891989","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Precipitation regulates shrub impacts on soil multifunctionality across soil depths at α- and β-scales in eastern Tibetan alpine grasslands","authors":"Jingwei Chen ,&nbsp;Qi Feng ,&nbsp;Meng Zhu ,&nbsp;Wei Liu ,&nbsp;Jiahao Cao ,&nbsp;Hang An ,&nbsp;Xiangtai Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.apsoil.2025.106412","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.apsoil.2025.106412","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Global climate change is driving shrub expansion in alpine grassland ecosystems. It is well known that shrubs play a crucial role in alleviating environmental stress and maintaining multiple ecosystem functions, especially under extreme conditions. However, the impacts of shrubs on soil multifunctionality (hereafter “EMF”) at the α- and β-scales, along with the patterns and underlying mechanisms across soil depth and precipitation gradients, remain unclear. Here, we investigated the effects of dominant shrubs on EMF (at α- and β-scales) along a precipitation gradient (five sites ranging from 502 to 739 mm) and across three soil depths (0–15 cm, 15–30 cm, and 30–45 cm), and further identified the driving factors and regulatory mechanisms. We found that both α- and β-EMF significantly decreased with increasing soil depth, and exhibited a hump-shaped distribution along the precipitation. The positive effect of shrubs on α-EMF was only evident under extreme precipitation conditions (either too low or too high), regardless of soil depth. Meanwhile, in surface soil (0–15 cm), shrubs significantly reduced β-EMF at the site with 544 mm of precipitation, whereas in deeper soil layers (30–45 cm), shrubs also led to a significant reduction in β-EMF at sites with 502 mm and 739 mm of precipitation. Shrubs, soil depth, and precipitation affected α-EMF primarily through abiotic pathways (soil moisture and pH), whereas their effects on β-EMF were mediated through both abiotic pathways (soil moisture and pH heterogeneity) and biotic pathways (bacterial β-diversity). Our study provides a comprehensive understanding of shrub impacts on ecosystem functions at different scales across various soil depths in alpine ecosystems, and emphasizes the regulatory role of precipitation, enhancing our understanding of the potential impacts of shrub expansion.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8099,"journal":{"name":"Applied Soil Ecology","volume":"214 ","pages":"Article 106412"},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144891988","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Recovery of below-ground associations in restored Brazilian Atlantic Forest","authors":"Luis Fernando Merloti ,&nbsp;Raúl Ochoa-Hueso ,&nbsp;Dina in 't Zandt ,&nbsp;G.F. (Ciska) Veen ,&nbsp;Wanderlei Bieluczyk ,&nbsp;Ricardo Ribeiro Rodrigues ,&nbsp;Lucas William Mendes ,&nbsp;Siu Mui Tsai ,&nbsp;Wim H. van der Putten","doi":"10.1016/j.apsoil.2025.106408","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.apsoil.2025.106408","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Soil consists of abiotic and biotic components that sustain biodiversity and forest ecosystem functioning. However, soil restoration has been understudied, and restoration efforts often overlook it. Here, we apply an ecological coupling approach using correlation-based network analysis to assess the joint recovery of key abiotic, biotic, and functional soil components during forest restoration in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. We analyzed soil microbial composition as the biotic component, soil physico-chemical characteristics as the abiotic component, and microbial biodiversity, carbon stocks, and greenhouse gases as functional components. Two restoration methods were studied: (i) active restoration on former sugarcane fields and (ii) assisted restoration on former pasturelands. We examined chronosequences of early-, intermediate-, and late-stage restored forests, comparing them to three reference forests. We show that active forest restoration on former sugarcane fields initially disrupted soil associations, but this disruption was overcome as the forest further developed. Active restoration increased the coupling between soil components and created a co-occurrence network with strong linkages between abiotic and functional soil components. However, the late-stage restored forest remained different from all three reference forests. Assisted forest restoration on pastures already resulted into coupling during the transition from pasture to forest, while coupling and network structure of late-stage restored forest was not different from the native conserved reference forest. The observed coupling was the result of strong links between biotic and functional soil components. Both methods facilitated soil recovery, but coupling in assisted restoration was not different from the native conserved reference forest, while actively restored soils remained distinct from both native conserved and degraded reference forests. We propose that actively restored forests may need more time to converge with reference forests or that active restoration fosters a novel forest soil state.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8099,"journal":{"name":"Applied Soil Ecology","volume":"214 ","pages":"Article 106408"},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144889283","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Plant residues regulate intestinal microbial diversity and carbon function of invasive earthworms by increasing the soil carbon content","authors":"Hui Zhang ,&nbsp;Jianliang Liu ,&nbsp;Yun Guo ,&nbsp;Kunyang Zhao ,&nbsp;Huai Chen","doi":"10.1016/j.apsoil.2025.106363","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.apsoil.2025.106363","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>There are abundant plant residues in peatland soil, whether and how these plant residues influence the composition and structure of earthworm intestinal prokaryotes, as well as the relationship between intestinal prokaryotes and soil physicochemical properties and soil prokaryotes remains elusive. In this view, earthworms were fed with peat soil alone or peat soil supplemented with plant residues for 90 days, after which their intestinal contents and peat soil were collected for 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The findings revealed that Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria and Bacteroidetes dominated the earthworm gut. Plant residues significantly decreased the relative abundance of Chloroflexi while increasing that of Proteobacteria. Meanwhile, plant residues increased the richness, evenness, and diversity of intestinal prokaryotes while decreasing in richness and Shannon diversity shortly afterward. Of note, when plant residues were introduced, soil dissolved organic carbon, total carbon, and extracellular enzyme activity linked with carbon strongly correlated with intestinal prokaryotic community structure. The relative abundance of genes related to cellobiose transport and sugar transporters in earthworm gut was higher than in soil. Over time, the abundance of chitin and starch degradation functional genes in earthworm gut microbes matched that of soil. The structural equation model revealed that plant residues could change the gut microbial diversity and carbon function genes of earthworms by regulating soil carbon content. This study suggested that the practice of removing plant residues in soil research needs to be reconsidered.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8099,"journal":{"name":"Applied Soil Ecology","volume":"214 ","pages":"Article 106363"},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144889287","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Tree mycorrhizal association types shape oribatid mite communities in a subtropical forest","authors":"Yannan Chen ,&nbsp;Chenglin Liu ,&nbsp;Yu Chen ,&nbsp;Xue Pan ,&nbsp;Yuhui Ding ,&nbsp;Stefan Scheu ,&nbsp;Mark Maraun ,&nbsp;Jun Chen","doi":"10.1016/j.apsoil.2025.106397","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.apsoil.2025.106397","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Forest management prioritizes sustaining primary productivity and conserving biodiversity, with its processes profoundly influenced by tree mycorrhizal associations and their interactions with soil fauna. However, how mycorrhizal types structure belowground communities is poorly understood. Here, we investigated how arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM), ectomycorrhizal (EM), and mixed (AM × EM) tree species influence oribatid mite communities in a subtropical forest ecosystem. By analyzing environmental factors (canopy cover, litter traits, soil properties) and oribatid mite community metrics (density, species richness, functional traits, and functional diversity) across 21 plots, we identified key drivers of oribatid mite community assemblies among tree mycorrhizal association types. Results revealed that AM tree stands, characterized by rapid litter decomposition and high fungal diversity, supported fungal-feeding oribatid mites with high δ¹³C values, indicating microbial-processed carbon utilization. In contrast, EM tree stands favored parthenogenetic species under thick, recalcitrant litter layers, correlating with higher oribatid mite densities. Mixed mycorrhizal type stands exhibited intermediate traits, suggesting that resource complementarity enhances functional redundancy. Redundancy analysis highlighted canopy cover, litter thickness, soil fungal diversity and soil phosphorus as critical drivers of oribatid mite community structure. These findings demonstrate that mycorrhizal types act as ecological filters, shaping soil fauna through cascading effects on litter chemistry and microbial interactions. Our study underscores the importance of integrating mycorrhizal diversity into forest management to sustain soil biodiversity and ecosystem resilience under global change.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8099,"journal":{"name":"Applied Soil Ecology","volume":"214 ","pages":"Article 106397"},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144885591","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Microbial inoculant and microalgae fertilizer improved the growth and quality of Salvia miltiorrhiza cultivated in lead-contaminated soil","authors":"Ying Ren,&nbsp;Gang Wang,&nbsp;Yuying Su,&nbsp;Jinfeng Li,&nbsp;Hui Zhang,&nbsp;Meihua Yang,&nbsp;Jianping Han","doi":"10.1016/j.apsoil.2025.106410","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.apsoil.2025.106410","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Excessive Pb accumulation in medicinal plants compromises the safety and therapeutic efficacy of herbal products, posing significant health risks to consumers. This study evaluated the potential of the <em>Bacillus</em> microbial inoculant and the microalgae fertilizer to mitigate Pb stress in <em>Salvia miltiorrhiza</em> by assessing their effects on plant growth, Pb uptake, active ingredient accumulation, antioxidant activity and rhizosphere microbial composition. The results showed that microalgae application markedly enhanced peroxidase activity (by 38.62 %) and salvianolic acid B content (by 50.32 %) while lowering root Pb concentration, whereas microbial inoculant tended to elevate tanshinone levels and improve soil potassium availability. Moreover, biofertilizer application reshaped the rhizosphere microbial communities, recruiting abundant metal-tolerant and nutrient-cycling taxa (such as <em>Bacillus</em>, <em>Cupriavidus</em>, and <em>Pseudomonas</em>) in the rhizosphere and suppressing the pathogenic fungi, potentially supporting improved plant performance. When applied in combination, total tanshinone content was further increased. However, co-application showed no synergistic effects on plant growth or Pb accumulation, and even led to a significant reduction in root biomass. Overall, microalgae fertilizer appears more effective for enhancing Pb tolerance and medicinal quality in <em>Salvia miltiorrhiza</em>, likely through the activation of antioxidant defenses, soil quality improvement, and beneficial restructuring of the rhizosphere microbiome. The absence of synergy in the combined treatment indicates that co-application protocols require further optimization before practical implementation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8099,"journal":{"name":"Applied Soil Ecology","volume":"214 ","pages":"Article 106410"},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144885590","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}