Summary
This field study compares long-term chemical and organic fertilisation in subtropical tea plantations, examining how management practices influence soil phosphorus availability through microbial functional traits. Organic fertilisation enhanced available phosphorus by 35.46% relative to chemical fertilisers, principally through increased abundance of genes encoding inorganic phosphorus solubilisation enzymes and organic phosphorus mineralising enzymes, alongside shifts in microbial community composition. The findings suggest that organic resource management activates residual soil phosphorus pools via microbiologically mediated pathways rather than relying on additional mineral inputs.
UK applicability
Tea cultivation is not a significant agricultural system in the United Kingdom, limiting direct applicability. However, the mechanistic insights into how organic management enhances phosphorus cycling through microbial gene expression may inform phosphorus stewardship in UK horticultural and arable systems where phosphorus availability is a constraint.
Key measures
Soil available phosphorus concentration, abundance of phosphorus-cycling functional genes (pstS, phnC, phnD, phnE, ppk1, ppx, aphA, glpA), microbial community composition (Actinobacteria, Gemmatimonadetes, Chloroflexi), soil nutrient levels
Outcomes reported
The study measured soil phosphorus fractions, microbial functional gene abundance, and microbial community composition under chemical versus organic fertilisation regimes in tea plantations. It reported that organic fertilisation significantly increased soil available phosphorus and altered the expression of genes involved in inorganic phosphorus solubilisation and organic phosphorus mineralisation.
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