Microbial response to CaCO₃ application in an acid soil in southern China

Calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) application is widely used to ameliorate soil acidification. To counteract soil and bacterial community response to CaCO₃ application in an acidic paddy soil in southern China, a field experiment was conducted with four different dosages of CaCO₃ addition, 0, 2.25, 4.5 and 7.5 tons/ha, respectively. After one seasonal growth of rice, soil physicochemical properties, soil respiration and bacterial communities were investigated. Results showed that soil pH increased accordingly with increasing dose of CaCO₃ addition, and 7.5 tons/ha addition increased soil pH to neutral condition. Moderate dose of CaCO₃ application (4.5 tons/ha) significantly increased soil dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) content, enhanced soil respiration, while the excessive CaCO₃ application (7.5 tons/ha) decreased these soil properties. High-throughput sequencing results illustrated that moderate dose of CaCO₃ application increased the richness and alpha diversity of soil bacterial community. Compared with control, the relative abundance of Anaerolineaceae family belonging to Chloroflexi phylum increased by 38.7%, 35.4% and 24.5% under 2.25, 4.5 and 7.5 tons/ha treatments, respectively. Redundancy analysis (RDA) showed that soil pH was the most important factor shaping soil bacterial community. The results of this study suggest that proper dose of CaCO₃ additions to acid paddy soil in southern China could have positive effects on soil properties and bacterial community.