Comparison of microbial community structures in soils with woody organic amendments and soils with traditional local organic amendments in Ningxia of Northern China.

backgroundAddition of organic amendments has been commonly adopted as a means to restore degraded soils globally. More recently, the use of woody organic amendments has been recognized as a viable method of capturing and retaining water and restoring degraded and desertified soil, especially in semi-arid regions. However, the impacts of woody amendments on soil microbial community structure, versus other traditional organic supplements is less understood.

methodsThree locally available natural organic materials of different qualities, i.e., cow manure (CM), corn straw (CS), and chipped poplar branches (PB) were selected as treatments in Ningxia, Northern China and compared with control soils. Four microcosms served as replicates for each treatment. All treatments contained desertified soil; treatments with amendments were mixed with 3% (w/w) of one of the above organic materials. After 7 and 15 months from the start of the experiment, soil samples were analyzed for chemical and physical properties, along with biological properties, which included microbial

resultsBoth bacterial and fungal

conclusionNew local organic amendment with PB tended to affect the microbial community in a similar way to the traditional local organic amendment with CS, but different from the most traditional local organic amendment with CM in Ningxia, Northern China. Moreover, the high C/N-sensitive, and lignin and cellulose decompose-related microbial phyla increased in CS and PB have benefits in decomposing those incorporated organic materials and improving soil properties. Therefore, we recommend that PB should also be considered as a viable soil organic amendment for future not in Ningxia, but also in other places.