Impact of organic residues addition in soil microbial community and N2O emissions

Agricultural lands receive crop and animal residues as option for additional nutrients to replace inorganic fertilizers. Although the idea of discard residues is sustainable, its implementation contributes to the production of greenhouse gases such as nitrous oxide (N2O). However, the impact of disturbances caused by crop wastes on soil microbial community is still not clear. The aim was to study the impact of agricultural residues on the bacterial community accessed by next generation sequencing of nucleics acids. Two field experiments were carried out with the first experiment with the treatments control, mineral fertilizer, slurry and slurry with nitrification inhibitor dicyandiamide (DCD) while the second experiment presented the following treatments: control, sugarcane straw, vinasse and vinasse with sugarcane straw. Nitrous oxide emissions were also analysed. The organic fertilizers were the main drivers on changes in microbial community structure and they affected the microorganisms differently conformable to the applied residue compared with soils with or without fertilizer, but without residues. Slurry application changed the community in the third day of experiment temporarily due to increases in the abundance of Bacteroidetes, Proteobacteria and Firmicutes but the metabolically active microbial community was resilient returning to the original state after 50 days of experiment. The impact of plant residues were visualized in the treatment than microbial dynamics with only straw application modifying the abundance of Bacteroidetes and Beta-Proteobacteria. High proportions of Verrucomicrobia were found in vinasse treatment, whereas Firmicutes were overrepresented in vinasse plus straw treatment. Plants and animal origin residues as slurry with and without DCD, straw and vinasse affected specific groups of microorganisms that participate in nitrogen cycle. Furthermore, phosphorus, iron and nitrogen cycles were altered in plants residues treatments. Different microorganisms were responsible for the same functions in biogeochemical cycles in different treatments with plant residues indicating possible functional redundancy. All agricultural residues amendments also contributed to increase N2O emissions, except for the treatment with DCD which was effective against the nitrification process. In conclusion, the results are important to understand the appropriate crop residues managements in microbial compositions and functions under the current effort of sustainable agricultural practices.