Conservation agriculture raises crop nitrogen acquisition by amplifying plant-microbe synergy under climate warming

作者：Cunkang Hao, Jennifer A. J. Dungait, Wen‐Hui Shang, Ruixing Hou, Huarui Gong, Yunfeng Yang, Hans Lambers, Peng Yu, Manuel Delgado‐Baquerizo, Xingliang Xu, Amit Kumar, Ye Deng, Xi Peng, Zhenling Cui, Yakov Kuzyakov, Jizhong Zhou, Fusuo Zhang, Jing Tian · 发表于：Nature Communications · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1038/s41467-025-65999-z · 被引用次数：16 · 研究领域：Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics、Plant-Microbe Interactions and Immunity、Plant nutrient uptake and metabolism

Sustainable crop production in a warming climate requires land management strategies that support plant-soil-microbe interactions to optimize nitrogen (N) availability. Here, we investigate the interacting effects of 10 years’ experimental warming and management (conservation vs. conventional agriculture) on wheat N acquisition using in situ 15N-labeling, root metabolomics and microbial metagenomics. We find that warming amplifies the positive effects on wheat nitrate uptake by 25% in conservation agriculture compared to conventional agriculture, while alleviating microbial competition for N. Additionally, warming increases soil gross N mineralization and nitrification rates by 191% and 159%, but decreases microbial immobilization by 24% in conservation agriculture. Concurrently, microbial genes for mineralization and nitrification are enriched, while those for N immobilization and nitrate reduction are reduced under conservation agriculture with warming. These shifts are driven by alterations in root primary and secondary metabolites, which reshape N-cycling microbial functional niches and optimize multiple microbial N processes beyond mere organic N mining. This reconfiguration increases carbon-nitrogen exchange efficiency, enabling wheat to outcompete soil microorganisms for N. Collectively, our findings suggest that conservation agriculture enhances plant N acquisition by strengthening plant-soil-microbe interactions under climate change, providing a sustainable strategy ...