Vermicompost assisted arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi to transfer 15 N from crop residues to lettuce

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Vermicompost assisted arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi to transfer 15N from crop residues to lettuce Mengli Liu & Chuo Zhu & Chong Wang

Received: 20 April 2020 / Accepted: 7 September 2020 # Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020

Abstract Aim Nitrogen (N) is an essential nutrient for plant growth. A modified up-down two-compartment system, with the addition of 15N-labelled wheat straw in the hyphal compartment (HC), was set up to investigate the effects of vermicompost and arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi on improving 15N mineralisation from wheat straw and uptake by lettuce. Methods Lettuce yield, the 15N contents of shoots and roots, the concentration of inorganic 15N in soil, the percentage of 15N transfer were measured, as well as soil organic matter content, soil aggregate-size

Mengli Liu and Chuo Zhu contributed equally to this work. Responsible Editor: Katharina Maria Keiblinger. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-020-04711-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. M. Liu : C. Zhu : C. Wang Beijing Key Laboratory of Biodiversity and Organic Farming, 2 Yuanmingyuan Xilu, Beijing 100193, China M. Liu : C. Zhu : C. Wang (*) Key Laboratory of Plant-Soil Interactions, Ministry of Education, 2 Yuanmingyuan Xilu, Beijing 100193, China e-mail: [email protected]

distribution, hyphal length density and the soil bacterial community in the HC. Results Vermicompost can improve soil aggregation by replenishing organic matter, which can subsequently regulate the soil bacterial community and increase the relative abundance of N-cycling bacteria in the hyphosphere. Vermicompost enhanced 15N mineralisation from wheat straw by regulating the physical structure of the soil and the bacterial community but did not help transferring 15N to the plant alone. AM fungi hyphae could transfer 15N from the HC to the plant, which significantly increased shoot and root 15N uptake. Ultimately, the interaction between vermicompost and AM fungi increased the yield of lettuce by enhancing the uptake of N that was mineralised from crop residues. Conclusion Overall, the interaction between vermicompost and AM fungi may help lettuce to speed up 15N acqusition from crop residues via mineralization induced by vermicompost amendment and the transfer from soil to plant via AM fungi. Keywords Hyphal compartment . Soil aggregate . Soil bacterial community . Hyphal length density . 15N transfer

Introduction Present Address: M. Liu : C. Zhu : C. Wang (*) College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China

Nitrogen (N) is an essential nutrient limiting plant growth in many ecosystems and is strongly linked to plant production and quality (O'Brien et al. 2016). The

Plant Soil

relieving N deficiency can enhance plant growth and regulate the metabolism and physiological processes of plants (Kelly 2018; McMurtrie and Näsholm 2018). Large quantities of nitrogenous fertilizer can be applied