ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Effects of Different Soil Disinfection
Methods on Physicochemical Properties
and Microbial Community Structure of
Strawberry Continuous Cropping Soils
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1
Institute of Biotechnology, Hangzhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 310024, China
2
Zhejiang Provincial Seed Management Station, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 315000, China
These authors had equal contribution to this work
Submission date: 2025-05-27
Final revision date: 2025-07-23
Acceptance date: 2025-07-31
Online publication date: 2026-01-07
Corresponding author
Yan Zha
Hangzhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences, 261Zhusi Road, 310024, Hangzhou, China
Wenfei Xiao
Institute of Biotechnology, Hangzhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 310024, China
Xiaoyang Chen
Zhejiang Provincial Seed Management Station, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 315000, China
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ABSTRACT
Long-term continuous cropping and poor tillage practices can lead to the degradation of soil
physicochemical properties and the deterioration of soil microbiota. Restructuring microbial
communities and improving the soil micro-ecological balance are essential for the prevention and
control of soil-borne diseases in continuous cropping systems. In this study, strawberry soils cultivated
for five years were used to investigate the effects of different soil disinfection methods, including
solarization (SE), dazomet fumigation (DA), lime nitrogen application (LN), and biofumigation (EM),
on soil physicochemical properties, soil bacterial and fungal community diversity, and predictive
functions, using macro-genomics sequencing. The results showed that: (1) Different treatments reduced
the diversity and abundance of bacteria and fungi to varying degrees. (2) DA treatment significantly
decreased the relative abundance of Actinomycetota (9.32%) and significantly increased the relative
abundance of Deinococcota (0.64%), while Pseudomonadota exhibited the lowest abundance in DA. DA
treatment significantly increased the relative abundance of Phenylobacterium (18.42%) and Geobacter
(9.75%). All the treatments significantly decreased the relative abundance of Sphingomonas. EM, LN,
and SE treatments increased Pseudomonadota, Pseudomonas, and Deinococcota to varying degrees.
(3) Different disinfection treatments increased the number of potential biomarkers in soil bacterial
communities. (4) Correlation analysis revealed that soil microbial community characteristics were
mainly influenced by pH, electrical conductivity (EC), neutral phosphatase (NP), available phosphorus
(AP), urease (UR), and sucrase (SU). (5) The EC content of the soil under DA treatment increased by 42.49% compared to CK. Different treatments significantly reduced effective phosphorus and organic
carbon contents, while increasing the AP content. (6) LN treatment markedly increased soil urease
activity by nearly 50%, along with moderate increases in sucrase and neutral phosphatase activities.
In contrast, SE treatment resulted in a noticeable reduction in sucrase activity and a slight decrease
in neutral phosphatase activity. (7) Different sterilization methods increased the relative abundance
of functions related to amino acid transport and metabolism, carbohydrate transport and metabolism,
and replication, recombination, and repair, while decreasing functions related to RNA processing and
modification, transcription, and cytoskeleton. The findings contribute to a better understanding of how
disinfection strategies influence soil health and offer insights for optimizing sustainable strawberry
production. Our future research should focus on the long-term impacts and field-scale validation of
these treatments.