Zengqiang Li

Chinese Academy of Sciences | CAS · Department of Soil Environmental Science

It is well known that nitrogen (N) fertilizer input is required to improve crop productivity, but we lack a comprehensive understanding of how elevated N input changes the formation of soil acid hydrolyzable nitrogen (AHN) by adjusting the most vital microbial taxa of keystone species of microbial communities and enzyme activities. A 15-year field...

Biochar application has widely been used to improve crop yield, but its effectiveness is uncertain. Soil microbial communities may play critical roles, but we lack experimental evidences on the relationships between these communities and crop yield following biochar application. Here, we used cooccurrence networks to demonstrate the importance of e...

Balanced fertilization with N, P, and K fertilizers (NPK) is usually recommended to increase crop yield, while little is known on whether the effectiveness differs in soils with different fertilization histories. A greenhouse experiment grown with winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and fertilized with NPK was conducted using soils that had been un...

Soil bacteria and fungi are essential constituents of arable ecosystems. Long-term phosphorus (P) deficiency has been proven to significantly affect microbial community diversity and composition. However, how P deficiency impacts the interplay between bacteria and fungi remains unclear. The objective was to explore the bacterial-fungal co-occurrenc...

AimsWheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars vary in their resistance to Fusarium head blight (FHB), while it is poorly understood how different cultivars influence FHB-causing Fusarium graminearum abundance in rhizosphere soil.MethodsA field experiment was conducted to investigate the influence of three wheat cultivars on FHB index, rhizosphere soil...

Field decomposition of wheat and maize straws was monitored for 20 months using litterbag method in Calcaric Fluvisol soils with three different textures (sand, sandy loam, and silty clay). Residual straw samples were collected at 0 or after 4, 6, 10, and 20 months of decomposition. The chemical structure of straw was analyzed by solid-state ¹³C nu...

To investigate the effects of long-term fertilization on microbial decomposition of residues and priming effect (PE), ¹³C-labeled maize (Zea mays L.) residues were supplied to arable soils with a 20-year application of compost (COM), mineral NPK fertilizer (NPK), or without any treatments, the no-fertilizer control (NF). The soils that had been sto...

Unbalanced fertilization lacking nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), or potassium (K) is a worldwide phenomenon; however, whether they affect bacterial community composition and intraspecific interactions in a similar pattern and how they affect bacterial activity are not systematically compared. Soils under different kinds of unbalanced fertilization in...

PurposeA 2-year field experiment was conducted on the North China Plain to assess the effects of two straw management practices and different nitrogen fertilizer addition levels on soil organic matter (SOM) fractions and microbial properties under a winter wheat-summer maize cropping system.Materials and methodsEight treatments (two straw managemen...

Soil microorganisms are considered the most effective decomposers of applied crop residues, but it is poorly understood which communities are primarily responsible for decomposition under different conditions. A pot experiment was conducted in a greenhouse to follow the cycling of C and N derived from maize (Zea mays L.) residues labeled with both...

This study investigates the effects of residue incorporation coupled with plant growth and soil moisture level on wheat biomasses, soil nutrients, labile organic carbon (LOC), microbial metabolic profiles, and community composition. Four management practices were used in a 180-day pot experiment: (1) control (CON), (2) maize (Zea mays L.) residue i...

Investigating the effects of residue chemical composition on soil labile organic carbon (LOC) will improve our understanding of soil carbon sequestration. The effects of maize residue chemical composition and soil water content on soil LOC fractions and microbial properties were investigated in a laboratory incubation experiment. Maize shoot and ro...

Chemical composition of soil organic carbon (SOC) is central to soil fertility. We hypothesize that change in SOC content resulting from various long-term fertilization strategies accompanies the shift in SOC chemical structure. This study examined the effect of fertilization strategies along with the time of fertilizer application on the SOC compo...