The Green Manure (<i>Astragalus sinicus</i> L.) Improved Rice Yield and Quality and Changed Soil Microbial Communities of Rice in the Karst Mountains Area

Abstract

The use of green manure plants for soil restoration is a viable agricultural practice that can mitigate soil degradation and biodiversity loss caused by the long-term application of inorganic fertilizers. However, the effects of green manure on soil microbial communities, rice yield, and quality in the karst mountains are largely unknown. The effects of no chemical fertilizer, chemical fertilizer, chemical fertilizer + different Astragalus sinicus L. (Chinese milk vetch, CMV) treatments on the microbial community, soil enzyme activities, soil nutrient content, and crop yield were investigated through field experiments. A moderate application of chemical fertilizer with green manure can increase chlorophyll content, increase effective rice spikes, positive impact on rice yield, and increase crude protein, etc. Additional application of the moderate amount of CMV can increase alkali-hydrolyzable nitrogen and available phosphorus (a significant increase of 54.87–72.65%), improve microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and microbial biomass nitrogen (MBN) (CFMV2 significantly increased by 22.16%), improve soil urease and phosphatase activities, and the urease activity increased by 43.43–69.24% with CMV application compared to CK. Moreover, all bacterial communities were dominated by three major phyla (Proteobacteria, Chloroflexi, and Acidobacteria), where the application of chemical fertilizer with CMV increased the ratio of abundance of Proteobacteria and Acidobacteria in rice soils, and the effect of chemical fertilizer application on the dominant bacteria was regulated to some extent by additional green manure application, which may have a beneficial effect on rice yield. Therefore, we conclude that the rational use of chemical fertilizers with CMV (22,500 kg ha−1) in karst landscapes is one of the effective measures to achieve efficient and sustainable use of rice fields.

Keywords

• karst landforms
• <i>Astragalus sinicus</i> L.
• rice
• soil properties
• microbial communities