To address the issue of phosphorus limitation in agricultural and forestry production and to identify green and economical alternatives to chemical phosphorus fertilizers, this paper reviews the utilization of phosphorus in plant–soil systems and explores the considerable potential for exploiting endogenous phosphorus resources. The application of phosphate-solubilizing microorganisms (PSMs) is emphasized for their role in phosphorus activation and plant growth promotion. A focus is placed on microbial interactions as an entry point to regulate the functional rhizosphere microbiome, introducing the concept of synthetic communities. This approach aims to deepen the understanding of PSM interactions across plant root, soil, and microbial interfaces, providing a theoretical foundation for the development and application of biological regulation technologies to enhance phosphorus utilization efficiency.

Summary: Phosphate‐mobilizing bacteria (PMB) play a critical role in the regulation of phosphorus availability in the soil. The microbial genes pqqC and phoD encode pyrroloquinoline quinone synthase and bacterial alkaline phosphatase, respectively, which regulate inorganic and organic phosphorus mobilization, and are therefore used as PMB markers. We examined the effects of soil properties in three Moso bamboo forest sites on the PMB communities that were profiled using high‐throughput sequencing. We observed differentiated responses of pqqC ‐ and phoD ‐harbouring PMB communities to various soil conditions. There was significant variation among the sites in the diversity and structure of the phoD ‐harbouring community, which correlated with variation in phosphorus levels and non‐capillary porosity; soil organic carbon and soil water content also affected the structure of the phoD ‐harbouring community. However, no significant difference in the diversity of pqqC ‐harbouring community was observed among different sites, while the structure of the pqqC ‐harbouring bacteria community was affected by soil organic carbon and soil total nitrogen, but not soil phosphorus levels. Overall, changes in soil conditions affected the phoD ‐harbouring community more than the pqqC ‐harbouring community. These findings provide a new insight to explore the effects of soil conditions on microbial communities that solubilize inorganic phosphate and mineralize organic phosphate.

Summary: Phosphorus‐solubilizing microorganisms (PSMicros) play vital roles in helping plants to resist phosphorus (P) deficiency in soils, while their activities may vary with site conditions. The present study investigated the microbial diversity and subsequently screened PSMicro strains from rhizosphere soils at five bamboo forests in subtropical China, among which four were developed in a same stand. The activities of the screened PSMicros were also assessed. The results showed great variation in microbial diversity among different forests. Concomitantly, a total of 52 PSMicro strains were isolated and identified to 10 bacterial genera and 4 fungal genera, with different forest rhizosphere soils containing different PSMicros and/or showing different abundances for a certain PSMicro genus, despite some PSMicros would not grow readily on plates. Different, and even the same microbial genera isolated across the five forests, varied significantly in the amount of P that they solubilized from the medium, which ranged from 18.5 to 581.33 mg L ⁻¹ . Among the isolated PSMicros, species of Bacillus , Kluyvera , Buttiauxella , Meyerozyma and Penicillium were preponderant to liberate P from organic and inorganic P pools. This will have implications for biotechnological exploitation of microbes to alleviate P limitation in agricultural and natural systems with a sustainable green ecological approach.

Optimum fertilization levels are often determined solely from nursery growth responses. However, it is the performance of the seedling on the outplanting site that is the most important. For species seedlings, little information is known about the field performance of plants cultured with different nutrient rates, especially with exponential fertilization. In this study, Chinese pine ( Carr.) seedlings grown in 187 ml containers were fertilized exponentially in 6 treatments ranging from 10 to 120 mg N seedling for 25 weeks before outplanting. Dry mass and N content were measured at planting. Survival and field growth were monitored for two growing seasons. In the nursery, our data showed no difference in dry mass among the 40, 80, 100, and 120 mg N seedling fertilizer treatments; collectively, these treatments were significantly greater than at 10 and 20 mg N seedling treatments. Seedling N content was greatest for the 100 and 120 mg N seedling rates. These data suggested that nursery optimum N fertilization rate was no less than 100 mg N seedling. Outplanting height and root-collar diameter growth characteristics were not significantly different after two years, whereas maximum mean survival was best for seedlings nursery-fertilized at 80 mg N seedling. In consideration of both nursery and field performance metrics, our data suggest that exponentially fertilizing Chinese pine seedlings at 80 mg N seedling maximizes both nursery biomass accumulation and outplanting survival.Pinus Pinus tabulaeformis –1 –1 –1 –1 –1 –1 –1