Content area
Full Text
Introduction
Continuous cropping has become a popular cropping pattern for intensive agricultural production under the context of decreased available arable lands and increasing demands for food and cash crops driven by a growing population (Tan et al. 2021). Guizhou Province, located in southwest China, is marked by mountainous terrain and poor soils. Limited arable land and unsustainable planting practices lead to continuous tobacco cropping in most areas (Wang et al. 2020a, b). The long-term cropping pattern has resulted in highly severe soil replant disease. Long-term continuous cropping caused effective nutrient reduction and soil acidification due to the selective uptake of crops (Beretta-Blanco et al. 2019; Li et al. 2024). Long-term continuous cropping also reduced soil microbial diversity and increased pathogenic dominant species (Li et al. 2022). Tobacco is one of the largest cash crops grown in Guizhou Province and has a great impact on soil health. Our previous study found that the “barrel effect” of soil physical and chemical properties and the imbalance of soil microbial communities were important causes of tobacco continuous cropping obstacles (Gong et al. 2024). In this sense, it is urgent to develop a green remediation technology to improve the soil physicochemical properties and soil microbial community structure of continuous cropping soils.
The reductive soil disinfestation (RSD) method is a green and eco-friendly soil amendment measure, which was innovatively proposed by Shinmura and Dutch (Blok et al. 2000; Shinmura 2000). Considerable studies have reported that RSD exerted a noticeable sterilization effect and was effective against bacterial wilt, root rot, root-knot nematode, verticillium wilt, phytophthora infestation, etc., and it could effectively kill pathogenic bacteria, such as Phytophthora, Pythium, and Fusarium (Luo et al. 2023; Masahiko et al. 2009; Momma et al. 2006; Wen et al. 2016). Meanwhile, RSD also regulated pH, increased organic fractions, and improved soil nutrients and structure (Luo et al. 2023; Zhan et al. 2021). RSD treatment created an anaerobic and high-temperature conditions, which cause significant changes in microbial metabolism. In anoxic soil conditions, the growth of some aerobic pathogens is significantly slowed (Huang et al. 2016). Under RSD treatment, the toxic and harmful substances generated during the degradation of organic materials are key to sterilization. Volatile fatty acids, as key products of anaerobic fermentation, with...