Microbial fertilizer improving the soil nutrients and growth of reed in degraded wetland

Wetland degradation is frequently observed in some river estuaries of China due to the imbalance of soil nutrient. In order to improve the soil nutrient and promote the restoration of plant, the microbial fertilizer containing the phosphorus-dissolving strain Pseudomonas plecoglossicida and potassium-dissolving strain Bacillus aryabhattai was developed to stimulate the growth of plant and increase soil nutrient in this study. Results showed that microbial fertilizer was more effective in increasing the contents of total N, P and K in soil and the activities of soil sucrase and urease. Compared with the control, the height and dry weight of reeds were increased 53.13% and 59.31%; the activities of soil sucrase and urease were improved 41.25% and 39.57%. Illumina Miseq sequencing showed that Pseudomonas spp. were the most predominant in microbial fertilizer treated soil but other treatments were quite different. Hence, the microbial fertilizer significantly promoted the growth of reed, increased soil nutrient and enzyme activity. It consequently revealed a promising application in improving the wetland soil nutrients and ecological restoration.