Biological Systems: Theory and Innovation

The formation of the microbial community in acidic sod-podzolic soil within the maize rhizosphere under the integrated application of fertilisers and soil amendments

Alla Levishko*, Iryna Gumeniuk, Pavlo Mamenko, Oleksandr Kolodiazhnyi, Liudmyla Yashchenko

alodua2@gmail.com

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Abstract

This study investigated the effect of the combined application of soil amendments and fertilisers on the formation and functioning of the microbial community in the maize rhizosphere under sod-podzolic soil conditions. The aim was to determine how the integrated application of fertilisers and soil amendments affects the structural and functional characteristics of the microbiocenosis of sod-podzolic soil in the maize rhizosphere and to identify microbiological indicators for the ecological bioindication of the agrocenosis. Field studies were conducted in 2025 in a long-term experiment at the Institute of Agriculture of Western Polissia, NAAS of Ukraine. The experiment comprised eight treatments combining the residual effect of liming with dolomite flour or limestone and differentiated mineral fertilisation with two foliar applications of a micronutrient fertiliser. The abundance of ecological-trophic groups of microorganisms was determined by plating on selective agar media, microbial biomass by the rehydration method, and CO₂ emission by the adsorption method. Soil pH increased from 4.09 to 5.48-6.20, while hydrolytic acidity decreased 2.1- and 2.9-fold. The abundance of ammonifiers increased 2.9- and 3.8-fold and reached 27.61 million CFU/g soil. When dolomite flour was combined with fertilisers, the abundance of micromycetes decreased 2.1-fold to 28.80 thousand CFU/g soil. The greatest change was recorded for oligonitrophiles, whose abundance decreased 7.7-fold. Microbial biomass increased to 128.95 µg C/g soil, CO₂ emission fell to 14.2 mg/kg per day, and the metabolic quotient decreased from 183.8 to 111.1 mg CO₂ per 1 g of biomass carbon. The microbial community shifted from a fungal-oligotrophic to a bacterial-eutrophic type, with an oligotrophy coefficient of 0.08-0.15 and a mineralisation coefficient of 0.14-0.24. Hydrolytic acidity was the leading regulator of this transition (r = 0.92 and 0.96). The practical value of the work lies in substantiating the abundance of oligonitrophiles as a bioindicator of nitrogen saturation in maize agrocenoses and in demonstrating the advantage of a magnesium-containing amendment for controlling the fungal microbiota of acidic Polissia soils

Keywords

soil microbiome; taxonomic structure; bioindication; microbial biomass; oligonitrophiles

Suggested citation
Levishko, A., Gumeniuk, I., Mamenko, P., Kolodiazhnyi, O., & Yashchenko, L. (2026). The formation of the microbial community in acidic sod-podzolic soil within the maize rhizosphere under the integrated application of fertilisers and soil amendments. Biological Systems: Theory and Innovation, 17(3), 106-120. https://doi.org/10.31548/biologiya/3.2026.106
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