Effects of soil fertilization practices on soil microbial abundance and diversity in the highbush blueberry production system

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Production of berries is highly dependent on appropriate soil preparation and fertility management. A keycomponent of understanding optimal fertilization practices is determining their impacts on soil microbialcommunities and overall soil health. This is because soil microbial communities can directly influence cropperformance, and their abundance and diversity can vary in response to fertilization treatments. We arerequesting research funds for the proposed ENGAGE research project and to support the establishment of aresearch collaboration with the industry partner, Sky Blue Horticulture Ltd. (SBH). The proposed ENGAGEproject will add value to current field-based blueberry fertilization research conducted by SBH by overlayingsoil microbial community data on plant performance and crop quality data. The proposed research project willdetermine the influence of four different alternative fertilization treatments (high phosphorus fertilizer[10-34-0], phosphites, humic acids and marine kelp extract) on soil microbial community composition (totalbiomass and relative biomass of different taxonomic groups) and relate those metrics to plant performancedata. Understanding microbial abundance and diversity in response to these fertility practices will lead todevelopment of applied horticultural recommendations for improved fruit yield and quality. Fosteringbeneficial soil microbial communities will increase nutrient use efficiency, reducing the need for chemicalfertilizer inputs, improving environmental sustainability and decreasing cost of production for growers.