Changes in soil microbial community composition in response to fertilization of paddy soils in subtropical China

• PLFA biomarkers of the sampled soils were analyzed by principal component analysis and redundancy analysis.
• Organic manure promoted the activity of bacteria, actinomycete and total microbial organisms in subtropical agricultural ecosystem.
• Increasing mineral fertilizer application rate alone had no effect on increasing microbial growth in paddy soils.
• SOC, TN and TP were the key determinants for maintaining soil microbial community.

Repeated fertilizer applications to cultivated soils may alter the composition and activities of microbial communities in terrestrial agro-ecosystems. In this study, we investigated the effects of different long term fertilization practices (control (CK), three levels of mineral fertilizer (N1P1K1, N2P2K2, and N3P3K3), and organic manure (OM)) on soil environmental variables and microbial communities by using phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) biomarkers analysis in subtropical China. Study showed that OM treatment led to increases in soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) contents, while the mineral fertilizer treatment led to increases in dissolved organic carbon (DOC) content. Changes in soil microbial communities (eg. bacteria, actinomycetes) were more noticeable in soils subjected to organic manure applications than in the control soils or those treated with mineral fertilizer applications. Fungal PLFA biomarkers responded differently from the other PLFA groups, the numerical values of fungal PLFA biomarkers were similar for all the OM and mineral fertilizer treatments. PCA analysis showed that the relative abundance of most PLFA biomarkers increased in response to OM treatment, and that increased application rates of the mineral fertilizer changed the composition of one small fungal PLFA biomarker group (namely 18:3ω6c and 16:1ω5c). Further, from the range of soil environmental factors that we examined, SOC, TN and TP were the key determinants affecting soil microbial community. Our results suggest that organic manure should be recommended to improve soil microbial activity in subtropical agricultural ecosystems, while increasing mineral fertilizer applications alone will not increase microbial growth in paddy soils.