Influence of phosphorus fertilization patterns on the bacterial community in upland farmland

Abstract We studied the influence of phosphorus (P) fertilizers on bacterial communities at different P fertilizer dosages (60 and 120 kg/ha) and delivery systems (row and broadcast application) in a wheat field in China. The bacterial community composition was identified using 16S rRNA high-throughput sequencing analysis. The input of phosphate fertilizer changed the diversity and distribution of the bacterial community in the soil layers. The influence on the 0–20 cm layer was greater than that on the 20–40 cm layer. The abundance of Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria was enriched in TT60, and the predominant phyla were Proteobacteria (48.69 %), Acidobacteria (23.11 %), Bacteroidetes (20.67 %), Actinobacteria (19.21 %), Gemmatimonadetes (12.03 %) and Chloroflexi (8.05 %). P fertilization increased the abundance and activity of functional degrading bacteria. Oligotrophic bacteria tended to be replaced by copiotrophs under P fertilization treatment. A greater effect was observed in the 0–20 cm layer compared to the 20–40 cm soil layer and also for 60 kg/ha P applied by row application. Correlation redundancy analysis demonstrated pH, organic matter (OM) and available phosphorus (AP) were the dominant contributors to the shift of bacterial community along with phosphorus fertilization strategy. P is a major variable that regulates microbial distribution by stimulating carbon-phosphorus coupling and participating in nitrogen-phosphorus synergy action to relate bacterial, aiming to make bacteria interrelated, and further alter carbon-phosphorus-nitrogen metabolism. Our results will further improve our understanding of how fertilizer measures affect soil quality by changing soil microbial communities in semi-arid agricultural ecosystems.