Co-incorporation of manure and inorganic fertilizer improves leaf physiological traits, rice production and soil functionality in a paddy field

The combined use of organic manure and chemical fertilizer (CF) is considered to be a good method for sustaining high crop yields and improving soil quality. We performed a field experiment in 2019 at the research station of Guanxi University, to investigate the effects of cattle manure (CM) and poultry manure (PM) combined with CF on soil physical and biochemical properties, rice dry matter (DM) and nitrogen (N) accumulation and grain yield. We also evaluated differences in pre-and post-anthesis DM and N accumulation and their contributions to grain yield. The experiment consisted of six treatments: no N fertilizer (T(1)), 100% CF (T(2)), 60% CM + 40% CF (T(3)), 30% CM + 70% CF (T(4)), 60% PM + 40% CF (T(5)), and 30% PM + 70% CF (T(6)). All CF and organic manure treatments provided a total N of 150 kg ha(−1). Results showed that the treatment T(6) increased leaf net photosynthetic rate (Pn) by 11% and 13%, chlorophyll content by 13% and 15%, total biomass by 9% and 11% and grain yield by 11% and 17% in the early and late season, respectively, compared with T(2). Similarly, the integrated manure and CF treatments improved post-antheis DM accumulation and soil properties, such as bulk density, organic carbon, total N, microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and microbial biomass nitrogen (MBN) relative to the CF-only treatments. Interestingly, increases in post-anthesis DM and N accumulation were further supported by enhanced leaf Pn and activity of N-metabolizing enzyme during the grain-filling period. Improvement in Pn and N-metabolizing enzyme activity were due to mainly improved soil quality in the combined manure and synthetic fertilizer treatments. Redundancy analysis (RDA) showed a strong relationship between grain yield and soil properties, and a stronger relationship was noted with soil MBC and MBN. Conclusively, a combination of 30% N from PM or CM with 70% N from CF is a promising option for improving soil quality and rice yield.