Supplementing plants with silicon (Si) often improves plant productivity and resilience to biotic and abiotic stresses, but this is mostly reported in highly controlled experimental environments. The ecological consequences of Si supplementation, including environmental benefits and potential risks, are therefore poorly understood and require field-scale evaluation of how Si supplementation affects the wider ecosystem, such as invertebrate communities and soil physicochemical properties. We conducted the first field assessment of how a legume (lucerne; ) agroecosystem and its associated invertebrate communities responded to two levels of Si supplementation (calcium silicate slag), over two years. We quantified seasonal changes in the abundance and diversity of aboveground arthropod communities, crop yield, elemental and nutritional chemistry, and soil pH as well as soil chemistry. The highest rate of Si supplementation increased bioavailable Si in the soil by 181% and soil pH from 5.2 to 6.3, relative to untreated plots, with a significant positive correlation between increased soil bioavailable Si and pH. Si supplementation led to an increase in crop yield by up to 52%; however, the magnitude varied with season. Foliar concentrations of Si tended to increase with Si supplementation, but this increase was marginally significant, potentially due to a dilution effect of higher shoot biomass. Si supplementation did not affect concentrations of most soil elements we quantified or forage quality of lucerne. We recorded over 13,600 arthropods; Si supplementation led to a shift in community structure and overall increased diversity of arthropod functional groups. Notably, the saprophytic fly family, Lauxaniidae was more abundant on Si-supplemented plots compared to untreated plots, potentially due to increased plant turnover. These results indicate that silicon supplementation of a legume agroecosystem, using a by-product of steel production, provides productivity benefits that outweigh some possible detrimental impacts on the ecosystem (i.e. decreased arthropod abundances, toxic metal contamination or reduced forage quality), which we did not detect in our current field study. This management intervention enhances crop yield, so could reduce the need for conventional fertilisers as well as changing soil pH to be more beneficial to crops and some arthropod groups.

中文翻译：

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豆科植物种植中补充硅的农业生态后果：长达两年的实地观察

为植物补充硅 (Si) 通常可以提高植物生产力以及对生物和非生物胁迫的恢复能力，但这主要是在高度控制的实验环境中报道的。因此，人们对补充硅的生态后果（包括环境效益和潜在风险）知之甚少，需要对补充硅如何影响更广泛的生态系统（例如无脊椎动物群落和土壤理化性质）进行实地评估。我们对豆科植物（苜蓿；）农业生态系统及其相关无脊椎动物群落在两年多的时间里对两种水平的硅补充（硅酸钙渣）的反应进行了首次实地评估。我们量化了地上节肢动物群落的丰度和多样性、作物产量、元素和营养化学、土壤 pH 值以及土壤化学的季节变化。相对于未处理的地块，最高的硅补充率使土壤中的生物可利用硅增加了 181%，土壤 pH 值从 5.2 提高到 6.3，土壤生物可利用硅的增加与 pH 值之间呈显着正相关。补充硅使作物产量增加高达 52%；然而，幅度随季节变化。随着硅的补充，硅的叶浓度趋于增加，但这种增加是轻微显着的，可能是由于较高的芽生物量的稀释效应。硅的补充不会影响我们量化的大多数土壤元素的浓度或苜蓿的饲料质量。我们记录了超过 13,600 种节肢动物；硅的补充导致群落结构的转变和节肢动物功能群总体多样性的增加。值得注意的是，与未处理的地块相比，腐生蝇科 Lauxaniidae 在添加硅的地块上更为丰富，这可能是由于植物周转率增加所致。这些结果表明，利用钢铁生产的副产品为豆科农业生态系统补充硅所带来的生产力效益超过了对生态系统可能产生的一些有害影响（即节肢动物丰度减少、有毒金属污染或饲料质量下降），我们做到了这一点在我们目前的实地研究中没有发现。这种管理干预措施可以提高作物产量，因此可以减少对传统肥料的需求，并改变土壤 pH 值，使其对作物和一些节肢动物群体更加有利。