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Evaluating the Impacts of Azotobacter chroococcum Inoculation on Soil Stability and Plant Property of Maize Crop

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Abstract

To clarify whether Azotobacter chroococcum iinoculation disturbs soil stability, as well as the variations of plant properties and maize yield, we assessed the impacts of A. chroococcum inoculation on soil stability and analyzed using frameworks of soil resistance and resilience and simultaneously evaluated plant properties and maize yield during a 4-year period from 2016 to 2019. The contents of plant total nitrogen (N) and total phosphorus (P) were apparently increased in A. chroococcum inoculation treatment relative to the control treatment of non-inoculation of A. chroococcum, by changing the contents of soil ammonium-N (NH4+-N) at the seedling stage (+17.78%) and heading stage (+34.48%), as well as soil nitrate-N (NOx-N; −23.94%) and soil available P (Olsen-P; −15.38%) at the heading stage (P < 0.05). Moreover, the variations (0.87–1.38) of soil properties did not exceed resistance (RS) capacities (< 0.5 or > 1.5), except soil NH4+-N (RS = 2.19) in 2019. The resilience (RL) values (1.15–1.14) of soil NH4+-N were not markedly different compared with the threshold value of RL (i.e., 1.0), showing that the resilience capabilities of soil property were not altered by A. chroococcum inoculation. The average grain weight over 4 years was obviously higher in A. chroococcum inoculation treatment than that in the control treatment (+17.07%; P < 0.05). These results suggested that A. chroococcum inoculation has no adverse impacts on soil stability and potentially promotes the absorption of plant nutrients and yield improvement for maize crop.

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Funding

This study was funded by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFD0200400), the National Nature Science Foundations of China (NSFC) (31871963; 31272051), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (KYZ201818), the Qing-Lan Project of Jiangsu Province of China, and the Research Grant from the Innovation Project for Graduate Student of Jiangsu Province (KYLX16_1063).

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Correspondence to Fajun Chen.

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Song, Y., Li, Z., Liu, J. et al. Evaluating the Impacts of Azotobacter chroococcum Inoculation on Soil Stability and Plant Property of Maize Crop. J Soil Sci Plant Nutr 21, 824–831 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42729-020-00404-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42729-020-00404-w

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