Applications of Chaetomium globosum CEF-082 improve soil health and mitigate the continuous cropping obstacles for Gossypium hirsutum

Serious crop diseases caused by soil microecological disturbances have been considered important causes of continuous cropping obstacles. Continuous long-term farming of cotton, an important cash crop, can lead to cotton yield and quality decline and the aggravation of soil-borne pathogens, such as Verticillium dahliae. A pot experiment was carried out in the continuous cropping cotton field soil of Xinjiang to investigate the impact of the biocontrol fungus Chaetomium globosum CEF-082 on removing the barrier to continuous cropping in cotton fields and its impact on soil microecology in cotton fields. The addition of CEF-082 increased the diversity and abundance of bacterial species, decreasing the abundance of pathogenic fungi, such as Fusarium and Verticillium, and decreasing the abundance ratio of fungi to bacteria (F/B) in soil according to high-throughput sequencing of cotton rhizosphere soil. Furthermore, the application of CEF-082 enhanced soil enzyme activity and soil pH value, controlled soil nutrient levels, and reduced the soil C/N ratio through the cotton root surrounding the soil nutrient level and enzyme activity change test. These modifications imply that the use of the biocontrol fungus CEF-082 may improve soil health, reduce the prevalence of soil-borne pathogens, restore damaged soil microecology, and have a favorable impact on easing the obstacles of continuous cotton cropping.