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Spent mushroom substrate as a substitute for chemical fertilizer changes N-cycling genes and reduces N2O emission in different textured soils

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Abstract

Spent mushroom substrate (SMS) is a by-product of mushroom production, which can be used as an organic fertilizer. However, studies on the effect of SMS as a substitute for chemical fertilizer on soil N2O emissions and relative mechanisms are scarce. A laboratory incubation experiment was conducted to examine the effects of SMSs derived from Pleurotus eryngii (SMS-PE) and Agaricus bisporus (SMS-AB) production on N2O emissions from a sandy loam and a clay loam soil. Six treatments for each soil were established: no fertilization (CK); chemical N fertilizer (U); two types of SMSs alone (SMS-PE and SMS-AB); and their half substitution with chemical N fertilizer (SMS-PEU and SMS-ABU). The recalcitrance and aliphaticity indices of SMS-PE determined by 13C nuclear magnetic resonance spectra were lower than those of SMS-AB. N2O emissions from the SMS-PEU and SMS-ABU decreased by 21.5–58.5% compared to the urea alone treatment. The emission of N2O was controlled by soil NH4+-N and AOB, indicating that nitrification is primarily responsible for N2O production. The increased NH4+-N concentration in the SMS-PEU treatment increased N2O emissions by 32.4% compared to the SMS-ABU treatment of the sandy loam soil. The N2O emissions from the clay loam soil treated with SMS-PEU depended on NO3−-N concentration and absolute abundance of nirS, nirK, and the nir/nos ratio, suggesting the presence of the simultaneous nitrification and denitrification. Thus, the application of SMS-PE with a higher proportion of available organic C increased denitrification gene abundance and likely enhanced denitrification-associated N2O emissions (by 72.6%) in the clay loam soil compared to SMS-ABU. Overall, our results reveal that substituting chemical N with SMSs, particularly SMS-AB with lower NH4+-N and available C concentrations, is a promising strategy to mitigate N2O emissions while reducing chemical N consumption.

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Data Availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Funding

This study was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2021YFD1700804-01), the Jiangsu Agriculture Science and Technology Innovation Fund (CX (21) 2024), the Jiangsu Basic Research Program (BK 20230750), and the Jiangsu Excellent Postdoctoral Program (JB 0206025).

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  1. Institute of Agricultural Resources and Environment, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing, 210014, China

    Guiting Yang, Yan Ma, Wenyi Xu, Xiaochi Ma & Chao Lu

  2. Key Laboratory of Saline-Alkali Soil Improvement and Utilization (Coastal Saline-Alkali Lands), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Nanjing, 210014, China

    Yan Ma

  3. National Agricultural Experiment Station for Agricultural Environment, Luhe, Nanjing, 211500, China

    Yan Ma

  4. Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen, 1350, Copenhagen K, Denmark

    Wenyi Xu

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Yang, G., Ma, Y., Xu, W. et al. Spent mushroom substrate as a substitute for chemical fertilizer changes N-cycling genes and reduces N2O emission in different textured soils. Biol Fertil Soils 60, 87–99 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-023-01772-y

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