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Effect of long-term  fertilizer type with film mulching on maize yield, soil aggregation and bacteria on the Loess Plateau  of China           
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  • pengfei Dang,
  • Tiantian Huang,
  • Chen Lu,
  • Yüze Li,
  • Miaomiao Zhang,
  • Xiaoliang Qin,
  • Yinglong Chen,
  • K Siddique
pengfei Dang
Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Tiantian Huang
Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University
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Chen Lu
Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University
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Yüze Li
Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University
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Miaomiao Zhang
Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University
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Xiaoliang Qin
Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University
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Yinglong Chen
The universtiy of Western Australia
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K Siddique
The University of Western Australia
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Abstract

Both PU and PC increased maize yield, water use efficiency (WUE), and partial factor productivity from applied N (PFPN), relative to CK. PC increased maize yield more than PU, and had higher soil organic carbon (SOC) content than PU, which was mainly due to the decline in SOC stocks in the 250–2000, 53–250, and <53 μm soil aggregates. The soil bacterial community structure was driven by SOC, C: N ratio, total nitrogen (TN), pH, microaggregates, clay and silt in CK, and by larger macroaggregates and mean weight diameter in PC and PU. Both PC and PU significantly changed soil bacterial community beta diversity, and decreased both positive and negative links of the co-occurrence network, relative to CK. Better soil nutrient conditions in PC explained the small number of positive and negative links between soil bacteria. Our results suggest PM improves maize yield, water and nitrogen use efficiency, and soil aggregate stability while alleviating bacterial competition. However, the reduction of SOC and pH caused by PM still needs our attention. PC alleviates the decline of soil fertility and soil acidification and has higher yield relative to PU. Therefore, we proposed PC is a potential agricultural measure that can replace PU on the Loess Plateau.