Responses of soil rhizosphere fungi to n application levels in different types of soil

Abstract

The response of maize soil rhizosphere fungi to different N application levels (0, 168, 240, 270, and 312 kg·ha-1) in sandy, meadow and alluvial soils were investigated by sequence variations in ITS rDNA determined with Illumina MiSeq sequencing. The result showed that with N application levels increased, soil available nutrients changed significantly, but total nutrients changed little, and the nutrient content site in meadow soil was higher than that in sandy soil and alluvial soil. The rhizosphere fungal community was mainly composed of Ascomycota and Basidiomycota. N application did not change the relative abundance of fungi significantly, but altered the structure of fungal communities. The relative abundance of Basidiomycota was increased with N application. Moreover, N application also increased fungal pathogens: Alternaria, Rhizopus and Waitea significantly. In addition, the soil fungal communities were clustered into two main groups, one for the meadow soil sites and another for the sandy soil and alluvial soil sites. Soil fungal community structure changed when nitrogen application level exceeded 168 kg·ha-1. Our findings on the responses of fungal community to N application levels in different types of soil is important to determine rational fertilization application measures.