Bioorganic fertilizer maintains a more stable soil microbiome than chemical fertilizer for monocropping

Understanding the responses of soil microbiome composition to various farming practices is important for selecting suitable managements to maintain soil functions. In this study, the influences of heavy chemical fertilizer application (CF) and reduced chemical fertilizer supplemented with organic (OF) or bioorganic fertilizer (BF, BF = OF + Trichoderma) on composition of soil microbiome were investigated for monocropping cucumber systems using a five-season continuous pot experiment. The MiSeq sequencing data indicated that the CF treatment resulted in the lowest fungal diversity and the BF treatment resulted in a relatively higher one close to the initial soil (CK). The BF and OF treatments had similar impacts on the composition of bacterial community, and the CF treatment significantly reduced bacterial diversity. Although both OF and BF treatments had better plant growth responses, they had less disturbance on the composition of fungal community relative to the CF treatment. The BF treatment is more predictable than the other treatments for postponing fungal diversity as the inoculated fungal species significantly (p < 0.05) affected the fungal community. In conclusion, the combination of bioorganic fertilizers with reduced chemical fertilizer application can maintain a diverse soil microbiome in cucumber monocropping.