Soil biota enhance agricultural sustainability by improving crop yield, nutrient uptake and reducing nitrogen leaching losses

1. Efficient resource use is a key factor for sustainable production and a necessity for meeting future global food demands. However, the factors that control resource use efficiency in agro-ecosystems are only partly understood. 2. We investigated the influence of soil biota on nutrient leaching, nutrient-use efficiency and plant performance in outdoor, open-top lysimeters comprising a volume of 230 L. The lysimeters were filled with sterilized soil in two horizons and inoculated with a reduced soil-life inoculum (soil biota ≤11 μm, microbially dominated) and an enriched soil-life inoculum [soil organisms ≤2 mm, also containing arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF)]. A crop rotation was planted, and nutrient leaching losses, plant biomass and nutrient contents were assessed over a period of almost 2 years. 3. In the first year of the experiment, enriched soil life increased crop yield (+22%), N uptake (+29%) and P uptake (+110%) of maize and strongly reduced leaching losses of N (−51%, co...