Insight into functional mechanisms of percarbamide and nitrification inhibitors in degrading fungicide residues and shaping microbial communities in soil-plant systems

Fungicides and nitrogen (N) fertilizers are essential to maintain plant yield in current intensive agriculture. Percarbamide is a novel type of N fertilizer with strong oxidizing property, and the nitrification inhibitor is widely used in agricultural production. It may be feasible to apply percarbamide and nitrification inhibitor as N management to promote fungicide dissipations in soil-plant system. This study quantified the effects of percarbamide and nitrification inhibitor dicyandiamide (DCD) and 3, 4-dimethylpyrazole phosphate (DMPP) on carbendazim residues, and microbial communities of soil-plant systems, and relationships among carbendazim residues, soil and endophytic microbial communities and plant yields were also comprehensively quantified. Compared with the control, the percarbamide significantly reduced soil carbendazim residues by 29.4% but enhanced the lettuce yield by 28.0%. Soil carbendazim residues were significantly and negatively correlated with the soil total N and NO3−-N contents. Soil microbial community structures and co-occurrence networks were more sensitive to N management than their endophytic counterparts. In comparison to the percarbamide alone, the DCD significantly increased the nodes of soil fungal community co-occurrence network which were positively correlated with the plant yield. The DCD outweighed DMPP in increasing the lettuce yield and soil fungal community stability and reshaping soil bacterial community structure. Our study suggested that soil microbial communities were more sensitive to percarbamide and nitrification inhibitor applications than their endophytic counterparts under fungicide pressure and that the DCD outweighed DMPP in reshaping microbial communities. The integrated applications of percarbamide and nitrification inhibitors were promising soil N management strategies to promote fungicide removal and stimulate microbial community in the soil-plant systems. [Display omitted] •N managements of percarbamide and NI significantly reduced soil fungicide residues.•Plant fungicide residue was negatively affected by soluble protein.•Fungal community stabilization had positive effects on plant yield.•Extra DCD significantly altered soil microbial community structures.•DCD outweighed DMPP in shaping microbial communities of soil-plant system.