Effects of biochar on soil microbial characteristics of pineapple and the heart rot under continuous cropping
A pot experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of biochar application on soil physiochemical properties,enzyme activities,microbial communities and the heart rot of pineapple under continuous cropping.Four biochar levels of 0%,0.4%,0.8%,1.2%(remarking as B0,B0.4,B08,B1.2 treatments,respectively)were set up.The results showed that compared with B0 treatment,the soil pH of B0.4,B08 and B1.2 treatments significantly increased by 0.15,0.33 and 0.21,respectively,and the contents of soil total nitrogen,alkaline nitrogen,available phosphorus,available potassium and organic matter increased significantly,while there were no significant increase in the contents of soil total phosphorus and total potassium.Under the B0.4,B0.8and B1.2 treatments,the content of soil microbial biomass carbon significantly increased by 23.14%,57.28%and 48.49%compared with B0 treatment,and the content of soil microbial biomass nitrogen significantly increased by 53.71%,153.34%and 144.24%,respectively,while the soil microbial biomass carbon/microbial biomass nitrogen value significantly decreased.In addition,biochar application significantly increased the number of bacteria and actinomycetes in pineapple continuous cropping soil,and enhanced the activities of soil urease,proteinase,acid phosphatase,catalase,sucrase and cellulase,while significantly reduced the number of fungi and the incidence rate of pineapple heart rot.Therefore,biochar application could effectively improve the pineapple continuous cropping soil,and the optimum results were observed at B0.8 treatment.