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

浆果的生产在很大程度上取决于适当的整地和肥力管理。了解最佳施肥措施的一个关键组成部分是确定其对土壤微生物群落和土壤整体健康的影响。这是因为土壤微生物群落可以直接影响作物表现，其丰度和多样性可能会因施肥处理的不同而不同。我们正在为拟议的Engage研究项目募集研究资金，并支持与行业合作伙伴天空之蓝园艺有限公司(SBH)建立研究合作关系。拟议的ENGAGE项目将通过覆盖植物表现和作物质量数据的土壤微生物群落数据，为SBH目前进行的基于田间的蓝莓施肥研究增加价值。拟议的研究项目将确定四种不同的替代施肥处理(高磷肥[10-34-0]、亚磷酸盐、腐植酸和海带提取物)对土壤微生物群落组成(不同分类类群的总生物量和相对生物量)的影响，并将这些指标与植物表现数据相关联。了解微生物丰度和多样性对这些肥力措施的响应将导致制定实用的园艺建议，以提高水果产量和质量。培育有益的土壤微生物群落将提高养分的利用效率，减少对化肥投入的需求，改善环境可持续性，并降低种植者的生产成本。

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.