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Katarina Hedlund

Katarina Hedlund

Professor

Katarina Hedlund

The effects of 55 years of different inorganic fertiliser regimes on soil properties and microbial community composition

Author

  • Alwyn Williams
  • Gunnar Borjesson
  • Katarina Hedlund

Summary, in English

Agricultural fertilisation increases crop yields but can cause environmental damage, thus reductions in inorganic fertiliser application have been advocated. Farmer usage of phosphate rock has declined over the last decade, which may lead to soil nutrient depletion that undermines future crop production. We investigated the long-term (55 years) effects of eight different inorganic fertiliser regimes at four sites: no phosphorous and potassium (PR) fertilisation or annual replacement of harvested PR, combined with 0, 50, 100, or 150 kg nitrogen (N) ha(-1) yr(-1) on a range of soil properties and microbial community composition. We also investigated whether differences in microbial community composition under different fertiliser regimes arose from differences in underlying soil properties, changes in soil properties resulting indirectly from fertilisation, or directly from fertilisation. Reduced fertiliser application significantly reduced topsoil organic carbon and N, as well as plant-available R This significantly reduced sugar beet yields but had less impact on winter wheat. The different fertiliser regimes had no significant effect on microbial community composition. Differences in soil properties as a result of fertilisation were less than differences between sites, and differences in microbial community composition were mainly explained by site. The results show that long-term inorganic fertiliser practices have little impact on microbial community composition, and lend support to research showing that microbial community composition is more influenced by organic matter inputs and underlying soil properties. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Department/s

  • Centre for Environmental and Climate Science (CEC)
  • Biodiversity
  • Soil Ecology

Publishing year

2013

Language

English

Pages

41-46

Publication/Series

Soil Biology & Biochemistry

Volume

67

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Elsevier

Topic

  • Earth and Related Environmental Sciences
  • Ecology

Keywords

  • Agriculture
  • Fertilisation
  • Microbial community
  • Nitrogen
  • Nutrient
  • depletion
  • Phosphorous
  • Soil organic carbon

Status

Published

Research group

  • Soil Ecology

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0038-0717