Soil fungal communities in tea plantation after 10 years of chemical vs. Integrated fertilization

Abstract

Addition of livestock manures and plant residues is a feasible practice to largely mitigate soil-degradative trends by the soil-dwelling fungi. However, long-term impacts of these fertilization regimes on the fungal community are poorly documented in tea (Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze) plantations in subtropical areas. In this study, MiSeq sequencing approach was used to estimate the diversity and composition of fungal communities in soils treated with 10 yr of non-fertilization control (CK), chemical fertilizers only (CF), and integrated use of chicken manure and legume straw with chemical fertilizers (IF), respectively. We found that different fertilization treatments produced little effect on the richness and diversity of soil fungi compared to those of the controls. In addition, Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, Zygomycota, Glomeromycota, and Chytridiomycota were the five most abundant phyla in soils under different fertilization treatments. Moreover, IF resulted in the prevalence of the genera Fusarium, unclassified Microascaceae, and unclassified Ascomycota, which accounted for 30.04%, 18.77%, and 6.92% of the total fungi, respectively. Additionally, the relative abundance of the phylum Ascomycota was positively correlated with pH, total N (TN), soil organic C (SOC), soil moisture (SM) and silt (SI) contents; however, these soil physicochemical properties were negatively correlated with the relative abundance of the phylum Basidiomycota. Together, these results suggest that the changes of the fungal community structure at the genus and phylum level under IF treatment could be the result of their responses to variations of soil pH, SM, TN, SOC, and SI contents.