Fertilizer strategies can shape microbial communities in the rhizosphere
Fertilizer strategies can play a key role in the diversity of microbial communities in the crop rhizosphere, according to a new study.
Led by Applied Microbiology International member Professor Olubukola Oluranti Babalola, the study, ‘Anthropogenic fertilization influences a shift in barley rhizosphere microbial communities’ examines the critical impact of agricultural practices on soil health and plant-microbe interaction.It is published in…..
The study was carried out at Food Security and Safety Focus Area, North-West University, by a team led by Professor Babalola along with post-doctoral researchers Ben Jesuorsemwen Enagbonma and Fadiji Ayomide Emmanuel who are coauthors, and aimed to determine how different fertilization regimes influence the composition of microbial communities in the barley rhizosphere.
“Modern agriculture heavily relies on chemical fertilizers to enhance crop yields. However, the long-term and extensive use of these fertilizers can lead to changes in soil health and microbial diversity,” Professor Babalola said. “The rhizosphere, the soil region surrounding plant roots, hosts diverse microbial communities essential for nutrient cycling, plant health, and soil structure. Fertilization practices can disrupt these communities, affecting plant growth and soil sustainability.
“By analyzing these shifts, the study’s findings are intended to provide insights into sustainable agricultural practices that maintain soil health and support robust microbial ecosystems, ultimately benefiting long-term agricultural productivity and environmental quality.”
The team extracted the total metagenomic DNA from soils obtained from the barley rhizosphere under chemical fertilization, organic fertilization, and bulk soil, and these samples were sequenced using an amplicon-based sequencing approach, and the raw sequence dataset examined using a metagenomic rast server (MG-RAST).
“Our findings showed that all environments shared numerous soil bacterial phyla but with different compositions. However, Bacteroidetes, Proteobacteria, and Actinobacteria predominated in the barley rhizosphere under chemical fertilization, organic fertilization, and bulk soils, respectively,” Professor Babalola said.“Alpha and beta diversity analysis showed that the diversity of bacteria under the organic barley rhizosphere was significantly higher and more evenly distributed than bacteria under chemical fertilization and bulk soil.
“Results from this study, coupled with the imperative to feed the ever-increasing human population, underscore the need to adopt sustainable integrated fertilizer strategies. These approaches are crucial for optimizing outputs, maintaining microbial communities, and promoting plant health and yield.
“Building on the findings of how anthropogenic fertilization influences barley rhizosphere microbial communities, a long-term experiment to assess how continuous fertilization affects rhizosphere microbial communities over multiple growing seasons is required. This can help identify cumulative or persistent effects on microbial diversity and function.”
This study, led by Prof Olubukola Oluranti Babalola and funded by the National Research Foundation, South Africa, will be published in PeerJ this summer.