ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Nutrition
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1659478
Multi-environment meta-analysis reveals the mechanism of action of potassium-solubilizing microorganisms on crop yields
Provisionally accepted
- 1Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan University of Technology School of Biomedical Engineering, Taiyuan, China
- 2Anhui Provincial Academy of Eco-Environmental Science Research, Hefei, China
- 3Taiyuan University of Technology School of Biomedical Engineering, Taiyuan, China
- 4Ordos Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Ecology and Resource Protection Center, Ordos 017001 Inner Mengulia, China, Ordos, China
- 5the Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning, Beijing, China
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The availability of soil potassium plays a critical role in yield increases. Potassium-solubilizing microorganisms (KSM) offer a promising biological solution to improve potassium availability, but their efficacy across diverse global environments remains uncertain. Through a global meta-analysis of 102 studies (846 paired observations), we systematically evaluated the effects of KSM application on crop yields across five key dimensions: microorganism types, soil factors, crop classifications, field management, and stress types. KSM inoculation significantly increased soil available potassium (+28.9%), crop yield (+23.4%), and key growth indices, such as root length (+29.50%) and leaf area (+44.7%). This study identified Aspergillus spp. as the most suitable microorganism, and revealed that KSM efficacy is highly dependent on context: yield responses were greatest in clay loam soils, vegetable crops, and greenhouse conditions. Structural equation modeling indicated that microbial abundance, climate, soil available potassium, and plant growth (root length and leaf area) are key direct and indirect drivers of yield enhancement. The results indicate that the application of KSM is an effective strategy to increase crop yields in various environments. By identifying the optimal conditions for KSM application, the identification of optimal application parameters, derived from cross-study analysis, provides a robust strategy for leveraging microbial communities to boost soil potassium availability and nutrient efficiency, thereby contributing to the transition toward more sustainable and climate-resilient agriculture.
Keywords: potassium-solubilizing microorganisms, Soil available potassium, crop yield, Meta-analysis, sustainable agriculture
Received: 04 Jul 2025; Accepted: 20 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Fan, Zhu, Jia, Du, Wang, Liu, Lv, Liu and Li. 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: Ronghao Liu, liuronghao@tyut.edu.cn
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