ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Terrestrial Microbiology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1671636
This article is part of the Research TopicBiogeochemical Processes of Nutrients: Impacts of Global Changes and Human Activities on Microbial Communities in Terrestrial EcosystemsView all 8 articles
Soil aggregates regulate microbial drivers of phosphorus fractions under mowing and phosphorus addition
Provisionally accepted
Li Xiuping
Cui Haiying*Wang ShanlingHu BaoshuangZhai HuiliangHu JiaxinPeng XiaShakir Muhammad
Wei Sun*- School of Life Science, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, China
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Microorganisms are vital to ecosystem structure and function, as they mediate the dynamics of P fractions under land-use intensification. However, microbial properties vary considerably across different soil aggregate size, making it challenging to understand how microorganisms regulate P fractions in response to mowing and P addition across soil aggregates. To address this gap, we conducted an eight-year field study in a meadow steppe in Northeast China to examine the effect of mowing, P addition, and their interaction on P fractions across soil aggregate sizes. The results indicated that the interaction between mowing and P addition increased the total P across soil aggregates. The interaction of mowing and P addition enhanced the available P (sum of labile Pi and labile Po) by 74.13%, 55.01%, and 9.50% in large-macroaggregates (LMA), small macroaggregates (SMA), and microaggregates (MA), respectively. In LMA, the increases in moderately labile Pi, moderately labile Po, and residual P were driven by the decreased ratio of microbial biomass carbon to microbial biomass phosphorus (MBC:MBP), which itself was reduced by P addition. n SMA, P addition and mowing increased labile Po and Pi, as well as moderately labile Pi, by enhancing plant richness. In MA, P addition not only increased labile Po and moderately labile Pi by promoting plant belowground biomass (BGB), but also enhanced residual P through the stimulation of alkaline phosphatase (ALP). These findings highlighted the critical role of soil aggregates in regulating the dynamics of microbially driven soil P fractions. Overall, The distinct responses of P fractions and their dominant drivers offer valuable insights into understanding P cycling in grasslands and for developing sustainable management strategies.
Keywords: P cycling, Soil Structure, soil microorganisms, Land management practices, grassland
Received: 23 Jul 2025; Accepted: 13 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Xiuping, Haiying, Shanling, Baoshuang, Huiliang, Jiaxin, Xia, Muhammad and Sun. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Cui Haiying, cuihy608@nenu.edu.cn
Wei Sun, sunwei@nenu.edu.cn
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