Difference responses of soil fungal communities to cattle and chicken manure composting application
Authors: Zhang Junhua , Shen Cong , Shang Tian H. , Liu Ji L. 
Published: March 2022

Aims

Cattle and poultry manure composting are often applied on agricultural lands but the fungal community composition before and after application in soils is still unclear. This study describes soil fungal diversity after manure applications contribute to the correct resource use of livestock and poultry manures.

Methods and Results

Fresh manure samples were obtained from 10 beef cow farms and 12 egg-laying poultry farms at five distinct phases of rearing. Surface soil samples were collected from vegetable plots within the farms after manure application at 15, 30 and 45 t hm−2. Using high-throughput sequencing techniques, the ITS region was used to describe soil fungus populations. The fungal OTUs, Chao1 and ACE of cattle manure were relatively higher in the fattening stage (&gt;12 months), the OTUs and ACE of chicken manure were the highest in the initial laying stage (16–24 weeks). The fungal diversity indices of vegetable soils had no linear change after cow or chicken manure application compared with the control. Ascomycota (84.7% of total sequences), Neocallimastigomycota (9.69%) and Basidiomycota (4.6%) were the dominant phyla in cattle manure. Ascomycota (88.9%) also predominated in chicken manure followed by Basidiomycota (8.9%). Following both cattle and chicken manure applications, the abundance of Ascomycota decreased, whereas Basidiomycota and Chytridiomycota increased in the soils. None of the dominant genus increased or decreased linearly with the increase of cattle and chicken composting application rate. The fungal-dominant genera of the soils with and without manure composting application were mostly affected by soil pH and EC than manure. Pearson’s correlation analysis revealed that organic matter, Cu and Hg contents were strongly linked to the fungal diversity and the abundance of specific taxa in cattle manure. In chicken manure, OM, TN and Zn were major factors controlling the fungal diversity and community composition. Soil pH, EC and Cu, Zn, Cd, Hg and As content had pronounced effects on the beneficial and pathogenic genus in soil with and without manure composting. Beneficial fungal genus such as Aspergillus, Plectosphaerella, Acremonium, Meyerozyma and fungal pathogenic such as Fusarium, Cladosporium, Verticillium were sensitive to properties (EC, pH, OM) and heavy metals (Cu, Zn, Hg) contents of the environment relatively. This study can serve as an applicable contribution helping in farms management (especially to cattle and poultry breeding) and improving their resource use of livestock and poultry manures.

Conclusions

Soil heterogeneity rather than manure determines fungal communities in the vegetable fields, but we can encourage the sensible use of cattle and chicken manures in agroecosystems.

Significance and Impact of the study

This study will help farmers regulate the dosage of feed components which can increase the number of beneficial fungal genus or reduce the number of pathogenic fungal genus, improve their resource use of livestock and poultry manures and encourage the sensible use of cattle and chicken manures in agroecosystems.