Abstract
Functional microorganisms play key roles in sustainable agriculture, and seedling technologies leveraging the priority effect are vital for unlocking the potential of these microorganisms. However, there is still a lack of systematic assessments of microbial seedling technologies on yield and soil properties under field conditions. This study employed mycorrhizal and bio-organic seedling cultivation (MSC and BOSC) to explore the effects of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi, mineral fertilizers, organic fertilizers, and other plant-beneficial microbes (PBMs) on maize yield and soil properties in the field. The results showed that AM fungi significantly increased maize yield by mediating phosphorus nutrition and improved agronomic traits such as ear length, ear diameter, and grain number per ear. However, AM fungi had no significant effect on soil properties, including pH, electrical conductivity, total nitrogen, soil organic carbon, fungal diversity, and bacterial diversity. Inoculation with PBMs (excluding AM fungi) at the seedling stage might not maintain the rhizosphere niche in the field, and therefore did not effectively promote maize growth. In addition, adding mineral and organic fertilizers to the seedling medium made the seedlings stronger, but had a limited effect on the yield. For economic reasons, we recommend that mycorrhizal seedling cultivation without addition of fertilizers. Our research provides important implications for the use of functional microorganisms in agriculture.
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Claims 8
Claim · model-written summary
AM fungi significantly increase maize yield by mediating phosphorus nutrition.
- Treatment
- AM fungie1
- Interactor
- AM fungiGlomeromycotae1symbiont
- Outcome
- maize yielde1
- Direction
- significantly increasede1
- Qualifier
- by mediating phosphorus nutritione1
Zea maysNot reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e1“AM fungi significantly increased maize yield by mediating phosphorus nutrition”
Claim · model-written summary
AM fungi improve maize agronomic traits such as ear length, ear diameter and grain number per ear.
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e1“AM fungi significantly increased maize yield by mediating phosphorus nutrition”
e2“improved agronomic traits such as ear length, ear diameter, and grain number per ear”
Claim · model-written summary
AM fungi have no significant effect on soil pH, electrical conductivity and total nitrogen.
- Treatment
- AM fungie3
- Outcome
- pH, electrical conductivity, total nitrogene3
- Direction
- no significant effecte3
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e1“AM fungi significantly increased maize yield by mediating phosphorus nutrition”
e3“AM fungi had no significant effect on soil properties, including pH, electrical conductivity, total nitrogen, soil organic carbon, fungal diversity, and bacterial diversity”
Claim · model-written summary
AM fungi have no significant effect on soil organic carbon, fungal diversity and bacterial diversity.
- Treatment
- AM fungie3
- Outcome
- soil organic carbon, fungal diversity, and bacterial diversitye3
- Direction
- no significant effecte3
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e1“AM fungi significantly increased maize yield by mediating phosphorus nutrition”
e3“AM fungi had no significant effect on soil properties, including pH, electrical conductivity, total nitrogen, soil organic carbon, fungal diversity, and bacterial diversity”
Claim · model-written summary
Seedling inoculation with other plant-beneficial microbes does not effectively promote maize growth in the field.
- Organ / stage
- seedling stagee4
- Treatment
- Inoculation with PBMs (excluding AM fungi)e4
- Interactor
- PBMse4other
- Outcome
- maize growthe4
- Direction
- did not effectively promotee4
- Setting
- in the fielde4
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e1“AM fungi significantly increased maize yield by mediating phosphorus nutrition”
e4“Inoculation with PBMs (excluding AM fungi) at the seedling stage might not maintain the rhizosphere niche in the field, and therefore did not effectively promote maize growth”
Claim · model-written summary
Mineral and organic fertilizers added to the seedling medium make seedlings stronger.
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e1“AM fungi significantly increased maize yield by mediating phosphorus nutrition”
e5“adding mineral and organic fertilizers to the seedling medium made the seedlings stronger, but had a limited effect on the yield”
Claim · model-written summary
Mineral and organic fertilizers added to the seedling medium have a limited effect on maize yield.
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e1“AM fungi significantly increased maize yield by mediating phosphorus nutrition”
e5“adding mineral and organic fertilizers to the seedling medium made the seedlings stronger, but had a limited effect on the yield”
Claim · model-written summary
Mycorrhizal seedling cultivation without fertilizer addition is recommended for maize.
- Outcome
- mycorrhizal seedling cultivation without addition of fertilizerse6
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e1“AM fungi significantly increased maize yield by mediating phosphorus nutrition”
e6“For economic reasons, we recommend that mycorrhizal seedling cultivation without addition of fertilizers”
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