Israel Ikoyi

Phosphorus is a finite, essential macronutrient for agriculture. Various nutrient recycling technologies in waste streams management are currently under development in many European countries in order to alleviate the dependency of the EU on imports of non-renewable raw material for the production of mineral phosphorus fertilizers commonly used in agriculture. The resulting products such as struvites and ashes need to be assessed for their application as so-called recycling-derived fertilisers (RDF) in the agricultural sector prior to commercialisation. Albeit high phosphorus abundance in most soils, the phosphorus availability for plant growth promotion in the soil solution is usually low due to strong P sorption in soil and depends vastly on the microbial mobilisation capability of the soil.To investigate the impact of different phosphorus fertilizers on plant growth and the soil P cycling microbiota, a short-term pot trial was conducted over the period of 54 days.Lolium perenne(v...

Soil drainage and phosphorus (P) availability are considered indicators of management intensity in pasture-based agriculture supporting livestock. However, microbial adaptations to P-availability according to soil drainage class are rarely investigated. We hypothesized that well-drained grasslands with high P-availability will sustain a distinctive soil microbiota when compared to poorly-drained grasslands with low-P availability. The relationship between soil drainage, plant available P and grassland microbial communities was evaluated among well-drained sites with high- or low-P and poorly-drained sites with high- or low-P, using fingerprinting, next-generation sequencing and quantitative PCR. Bacterial community structures were primarily affected by drainage as well as significantly separated between a combination of drainage and P availability i.e. low-P and poorly drained versus high-P and well drained. Abundance of the bacterial phylum Actinobacteria was significantly higher i...

Abstract Nematodes are indicators of soil quality and soil health. Knowledge of the relationships between nematode-based soil quality indices and environmental properties is beneficial for assessing environmental threats on soil biota. This study evaluated the spatial distribution of nematode-based soil quality indices in a 23-ha heavy metal-polluted nature reserve using geostatistical methods. We expected that a selection of abiotic soil properties (pH and moisture, clay, organic matter, cadmium (Cd), and zinc (Zn) contents) could explain a significant portion of the spatial variation of the indices and that regression kriging could more accurately model their spatial distribution than ordinary kriging. A stratified simple random sampling scheme was used to select 80 locations where soil samples were taken to extract nematodes and derive the indices. The area had a distinct gradient in soil properties with Cd and Zn content ranging from 0.07 to 68.9 and 5.3 to 1 329 mg kg−1, respectively. Linear regression models were fitted to describe the relationships between the indices and soil properties. By also modelling the spatial correlation structure of regression residuals using spherical semivariograms, regression kriging was used to produce maps of the indices. The regression models explained between 21% and 44% of the total original variance in the indices. Soil pH was a significant explanatory variable in almost all cases, while heavy metal conent had a remarkably low effect. In some cases, the regression residuals had spatial structure. Independent validation indicated that in all cases, regression kriging performed slightly better because of having lower values of the root mean square prediction error and a mean prediction error closer to zero than ordinary kriging. This study showed the importance of soil properties in explaining the spatial distribution of biological soil quality indices in ecological risk assessment.

Phosphorus (P) is an essential macronutrient for all living organisms and is applied as fertilizer in agroecosystems to improve crop growth. Recycling-derived fertilizers (RDFs) have been developed for nutrient recovery from Europe’s largest waste streams as a sustainable alternative to this finite resource. The impact of four RDFs (two ashes, two struvites) on the soil microbiome in comparison with a P-free control and triple super phosphate (TSP) as mineral fertilizer was investigated in a pot trial and a subsequent microcosm trial (subset of samples). For both experiments perennial ryegrass was cultivated for 54 days. The pot trial was conducted at P fertilization rates of 20 and 60 kg P ha-1 in quadruplicates. After the pot harvest the bulk soil was stored until the microcosm trial was conducted, using the control, TSP and the two ashes at 60 kg P ha-1 in six replicates. Pot trial results showed highest P bioavailability from struvites at high P rates, also resulting in higher b...