Increasing livestock wastewater application in alternate-furrow irrigation reduces nitrification gene abundance but not nitrification rate in rhizosphere.

In water-scarce regions, alternate-furrow irrigation (AFI)—alternately wetting half of the plant roots—has proven to be an effective water-saving approach without compromising yield. However, the extent to which AFI with wastewater affects N cycling genes remains poorly studied. We aimed to investigate changes in main N transformation processes, bacterial and fungal community composition, as well as relative abundance of N cycle-associated genes in soil receiving AFI with swine wastewater. The experimental plan included three irrigation rates, irrigating pepper plants with 50%, 65%, and 80% of the amount of water required under conventional furrow irrigation to prevent the crop suffering water stress. Each treatment had a groundwater irrigation control. We measured edaphic factors, microbial community composition, and relative abundance of genes in rhizosphere and bulk soils. Altering water use in AFI did not exert a significant effect on bacterial and fungal communities. By increasing the irrigation rate of wastewater, relative abundances of nifH, bacterial and archaeal amoA and nosZ genes decreased, whereas those of nirK and nirS genes increased in the rhizosphere soil; nitrification rate did not decrease and the denitrification rate remained unchanged in both rhizosphere and bulk soil, implying that appropriate increase of wastewater use by AFI can improve N use efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]