Effects of long-term application of organic fertilizer from distillers’ grains on the soil microbiome
- 1Kweichow Moutai Distillery (Group) Circular Economy Industry Investment and Development Co., Ltd
- 2Guizhou Provincial Institute of Soil and Fertilizer, Guizhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences
Abstract
Distillery residues represent an underexplored circular-economy resource for organic soil amendment, yet their long-term dose-dependent effects on soil microbial communities remain poorly characterized. Here we report a five-year field experiment (2020–2024) in which Maotai distillery-residue organic fertilizer was applied at five rates (4500–13,500 kg/ha) to a sorghum monoculture on yellow soil in Guizhou Province, China, alongside unfertilized control and chemical fertilizer (NPK) treatments. Soil bacterial and fungal communities were characterized by shotgun metagenomic sequencing. We found that Organic fertilizer application restructured microbial communities in a dose-dependent manner: high application rates (≥ 11,250 kg/ha) increased bacterial abundance by 11–17% relative to the control, whereas all organic treatments reduced fungal abundance by 46–75%. The soil health index (bacteria-to-fungi ratio) increased by 69–266% under organic fertilizer treatments. Redundancy analysis identified soil pH as the dominant driver of bacterial community variation (explaining 82%), while available nitrogen primarily controlled fungal community differentiation (73%). KEGG pathway analysis indicated that medium-to-high application rates were associated with enrichment of nitrogen metabolism and MAPK signaling–related genes. These findings demonstrate that distillery-residue organic fertilizer can serve as an effective soil amendment within a circular-economy framework, with application rates of 9000–11,250 kg/ha representing an optimal range that balances microbial diversity with functional gene enrichment.
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BibTeX
@article{xu2026effects,
title = {{Effects of long-term application of organic fertilizer from distillers’ grains on the soil microbiome}},
author = {Hao Xu and Quanquan Wei and Youfeng Jiang and Huixin Xiong and Bowen Zheng and Jiulan Gou and Xiaofeng Gu and Meng Zhang and Chunqi Lu and Nanling Song and Lingling Liu},
journal = {Scientific Reports},
year = {2026},
month = jul,
doi = {10.1038/s41598-026-64660-z},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-64660-z},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Effects of long-term application of organic fertilizer from distillers’ grains on the soil microbiome
AU - Hao Xu
AU - Quanquan Wei
AU - Youfeng Jiang
AU - Huixin Xiong
AU - Bowen Zheng
AU - Jiulan Gou
AU - Xiaofeng Gu
AU - Meng Zhang
AU - Chunqi Lu
AU - Nanling Song
AU - Lingling Liu
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/07/01
JO - Scientific Reports
DO - 10.1038/s41598-026-64660-z
UR - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-64660-z
AB - Distillery residues represent an underexplored circular-economy resource for organic soil amendment, yet their long-term dose-dependent effects on soil microbial communities remain poorly characterized. Here we report a five-year field experiment (2020–2024) in which Maotai distillery-residue organic fertilizer was applied at five rates (4500–13,500 kg/ha) to a sorghum monoculture on yellow soil in Guizhou Province, China, alongside unfertilized control and chemical fertilizer (NPK) treatments. Soil bacterial and fungal communities were characterized by shotgun metagenomic sequencing. We found that Organic fertilizer application restructured microbial communities in a dose-dependent manner: high application rates (≥ 11,250 kg/ha) increased bacterial abundance by 11–17% relative to the control, whereas all organic treatments reduced fungal abundance by 46–75%. The soil health index (bacteria-to-fungi ratio) increased by 69–266% under organic fertilizer treatments. Redundancy analysis identified soil pH as the dominant driver of bacterial community variation (explaining 82%), while available nitrogen primarily controlled fungal community differentiation (73%). KEGG pathway analysis indicated that medium-to-high application rates were associated with enrichment of nitrogen metabolism and MAPK signaling–related genes. These findings demonstrate that distillery-residue organic fertilizer can serve as an effective soil amendment within a circular-economy framework, with application rates of 9000–11,250 kg/ha representing an optimal range that balances microbial diversity with functional gene enrichment.
SN - 2045-2322
ER -