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Journal of Arid Land
Journal of Arid Land  2020, Vol. 12 Issue (6): 1018-1030    DOI: 10.1007/s40333-020-0024-7
Research article     
Corn straw return can increase labile soil organic carbon fractions and improve water-stable aggregates in Haplic Cambisol
Batande Sinovuyo NDZELU, DOU Sen*(), ZHANG Xiaowei
College of Resource and Environmental Science, Jilin Agricultural University, Changchun 130118, China
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Abstract  

Corn straw return to the field is a vital agronomic practice for increasing soil organic carbon (SOC) and its labile fractions, as well as soil aggregates and organic carbon (OC) associated with water-stable aggregates (WSA). Moreover, the labile SOC fractions play an important role in OC turnover and sequestration. The aims of this study were to determine how different corn straw returning modes affect the contents of labile SOC fractions and OC associated with WSA. Corn straw was returned in the following depths: (1) on undisturbed soil surface (NTS), (2) in the 0-10 cm soil depth (MTS), (3) in the 0-20 cm soil depth (CTS), and (4) no corn straw applied (CK). After five years (2014-2018), soil was sampled in the 0-20 and 20-40 cm depths to measure the water-extractable organic C (WEOC), permanganate oxidizable C (KMnO4-C), light fraction organic C (LFOC), and WSA fractions. The results showed that compared with CK, corn straw amended soils (NTS, MTS and CTS) increased SOC content by 11.55%-16.58%, WEOC by 41.38%-51.42%, KMnO4-C and LFOC by 29.84%-34.09% and 56.68%-65.36% in the 0-40 cm soil depth. The LFOC and KMnO4-C were proved to be the most sensitive fractions to different corn straw returning modes. Compared with CK, soils amended with corn straw increased mean weight diameter by 24.24%-40.48% in the 0-20 cm soil depth. The NTS and MTS preserved more than 60.00% of OC in macro-aggregates compared with CK. No significant difference was found in corn yield across all corn straw returning modes throughout the study period, indicating that adoption of NTS and MTS would increase SOC content and improve soil structure, and would not decline crop production.

Key words： aggregate-size distribution      corn straw return      corn yield      labile soil organic carbon fractions      Haplic Cambisol     
Received: 20 March 2020      Published: 10 November 2020
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About author: *DOU Sen (E-mail: dousen1959@126.com)
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Batande Sinovuyo NDZELU, DOU Sen, ZHANG Xiaowei. Corn straw return can increase labile soil organic carbon fractions and improve water-stable aggregates in Haplic Cambisol. Journal of Arid Land, 2020, 12(6): 1018-1030.

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http://jal.xjegi.com/10.1007/s40333-020-0024-7     OR     http://jal.xjegi.com/Y2020/V12/I6/1018

Soil depth (cm) Parameter NTS MTS CTS CK
0-20 pH 5.10±0.09a 5.15±0.14a 5.21±0.11a 5.17±0.12a
EC (μS/cm) 73.70±0.81a 70.83±0.33a 61.68±1.02b 72.09±0.58a
SOC (g/kg) 17.92±1.10a 15.89±0.68b 15.65±0.90b 14.21±0.59c
TN (%) 0.27±0.05a 0.23±0.07a 0.26±0.04a 0.12±0.01b
N (mg/kg) 151.31±19.20a 142.63±17.01a 116.72±11.61b 105.03±12.89b
P (mg/kg) 25.75±1.01a 23.42±1.63a 19.66±1.65b 17.01±1.12c
K (mg/kg) 179.29±9.42a 169.33±6.18a 155.83±7.42b 131.09±9.92c
Bulk density (g/cm3) 1.39±0.07a 1.43±0.08a 1.42±0.09a 1.48±0.05a
20-40 pH 5.13±0.04a 5.23±0.11a 5.49±0.35a 5.17±0.02a
EC (μS/cm) 68.29±1.76a 69.91±1.92a 59.42±1.43b 70.83±1.74a
SOC (g/kg) 13.75±0.63b 13.98±0.58b 14.82±0.71a 12.21±0.80c
TN (%) 0.13±0.00b 0.15±0.02b 0.21±0.02a 0.14±0.01b
N (mg/kg) 93.16±9.01ab 95.76±7.12ab 109.17±8.66a 90.35±6.64b
P (mg/kg) 12.23±0.79c 15.10±0.46b 17.10±0.13a 11.92±0.29c
K (mg/kg) 95.21±4.65b 110.12±8.26a 122.08±5.91a 97.15±3.79b
Bulk density (g/cm3) 1.41±0.03a 1.48±0.05a 1.44±0.04a 1.51±0.12a
Table 1 Soil properties under different corn straw returning modes in the 0-20 and 20-40 cm soil depths
Soil depth (cm) Parameter NTS MTS CTS CK
0-20 WEOC (g/kg) 0.28±0.04a 0.18±0.03b 0.08±0.04c 0.07±0.01c
Percentage of WEOC (%) 1.56±0.05a 1.13±0.03b 0.51±0.02c 0.48±0.05c
HWC (g/kg) 0.41±0.01a 0.33±0.04b 0.17±0.01c 0.16±0.01c
Percentage of HWC (%) 2.29±0.08a 2.07±0.04b 1.09±0.02c 1.13±0.09c
KMnO4-C (g/kg) 0.87±0.02a 0.72±0.09ab 0.60±0.10b 0.31±0.02c
Percentage of KMnO4-C (%) 4.86±0.14a 4.53±0.10a 3.85±0.09b 2.18±0.05c
MBC (g/kg) 0.55±0.05a 0.41±0.01b 0.30±0.03c 0.28±0.03c
Percentage of MBC (%) 3.07±0.05a 2.58±0.07b 1.92±0.03c 1.96±0.08c
LFOC (g/kg) 2.07±0.07a 1.84±0.06b 1.80±0.10b 0.54±0.05c
Percentage of LFOC (%) 11.55±0.21a 11.58±0.19a 11.50±0.28a 3.80±0.24b
POC (g/kg) 2.62±0.10a 2.24±0.09b 2.09±0.08c 1.47±0.07d
Percentage of POC (%) 14.62±1.43a 14.10±1.22a 13.35±1.16a 10.34±0.87b
20-40 WEOC (g/kg) 0.07±0.01c 0.11±0.02b 0.21±0.03a 0.10±0.02b
Percentage of WEOC (%) 0.73±0.05c 0.96±0.02b 1.42±0.11a 0.58±0.03d
HWC (g/kg) 0.18±0.05c 0.21±0.03b 0.38±0.02a 0.13±0.01c
Percentage of HWC (%) 1.31±0.02b 1.32±0.05b 2.56±0.12a 1.07±0.08c
KMnO4-C (g/kg) 0.45±0.02c 0.52±0.04b 0.64±0.01a 0.56±0.01b
Percentage of KMnO4-C (%) 3.27±0.09c 3.27±0.08c 4.32±0.04a 3.96±0.07b
MBC (g/kg) 0.20±0.02c 0.31±0.06a 0.36±0.02a 0.28±0.03b
Percentage of MBC (%) 1.45±0.02c 1.95±0.05b 2.43±0.05a 2.45±0.09a
LFOC (g/kg) 1.29±0.03b 1.23±0.09b 2.04±0.05a 0.79±0.03c
Percentage of LFOC (%) 9.38±0.11b 8.80±0.09c 13.77±0.19a 6.47±0.10d
POC (g/kg) 1.39±0.04c 1.55±0.09b 1.93±0.02a 0.94±0.03d
Percentage of POC (%) 10.11±0.06b 11.09±0.08b 13.02±0.09a 7.70±0.03c
Table 2 Effects of different corn straw returning modes on labile SOC fractions and their contributions to SOC in the 0-20 and 20-40 cm soil depths
Treatment Sensitivity index (%)
SOC WEOC HWC KMnO4-C MBC LFOC POC
NTS 25 300 156 181 96 533 69
MTS 12 157 106 132 46 241 32
CTS 9 58 6 94 7 233 34
Table 3 Sensitivity indices of SOC and labile SOC fractions under different corn straw returning modes in the 0-40 cm soil depth
SOC WEOC HWC KMnO4-C MBC LFOC
WEOC 0.917
HWC 0.874 0.987*
KMnO4-C 0.950* 0.880 0.882
MBC 0.934 0.998** 0.977* 0.884
LFOC 0.966* 0.692 0.692 0.948 0.691
POC 0.851 0.859 0.859 0.996** 0.878 0.951*
Table 4 Pearson's correlation coefficients (r) between SOC and labile SOC fractions under different corn straw returning modes in the 0-40 cm soil depth
Soil depth (cm) Parameter NTS MTS CTS CK
0-20 CPI 1.26±0.09a 1.12±0.06b 1.10±0.05b 1.00±0.00c
LI 2.29±0.12a 2.13±0.08a 2.29±0.11a 1.00±0.00b
CMI 288.19±2.34a 237.94±1.98c 252.03±2.65b 100.00±0.00d
20-40 CPI 1.13±0.03b 1.14±0.09b 1.27±0.00a 1.00±0.00c
LI 0.70±0.08c 0.80±0.05bc 0.94±0.04b 1.00±0.00a
CMI 79.26±1.93d 92.02±1.12c 113.97±2.46a 100.00±0.00b
Table 5 Carbon pool index (CPI), lability index (LI), and carbon management index (CMI) under different corn straw returning modes in the 0-20 and 20-40 cm soil depths
Fig. 1 Mean weight diameter (MWD, a), geometric mean diameter (GMD, b) and water stable aggregates (WSA) under different aggregate-size fractions and corn straw returning modes in the 0-20 (c) and 20-40 cm (d) soil depths. Error bars represent standard errors. Different lowercase letters within the same soil depth or aggregate-size fraction indicate significant differences at P<0.05 level. CK, no corn straw returned; NTS, corn straw placed on undisturbed soil surface; MTS, corn straw incorporated in the 0-10 cm soil depth; CTS, corn straw incorporated in the 0-20 cm soil depth.
Parameter SOC MWD GMD >2.000 mm 2.000-0.250 mm 0.250-0.053 mm
MWD 0.972*
GMD 0.979* 0.936
>2.000 mm 0.967* 0.988* 0.961*
2.000-0.250 mm -0.875 -0.854 -0.948* -0.923
0.250-0.053 mm -0.861 -0.917 -0.891 -0.960* 0.940
<0.053 mm -0.012 0.202 -0.000 0.238 -0.194 -0.453
Table 6 Pearson's correlation coefficients (r) of SOC content with mean weight diameter (MWD), geometric mean diameter (GMD), and soil aggregate-size fractions in the 0-40 cm soil depth
Fig. 2 Soil organic carbon (SOC) under different soil aggregate-size fractions and corn straw returning modes in the 0-20 (a) and 20-40 cm (b) soil depths. Bars represent standard errors. Different lowercase letters within the same aggregate-size fraction indicate significant differences at P<0.05 level. CK, no corn straw returned; NTS, corn straw placed on undisturbed soil surface; MTS, corn straw incorporated in the 0-10 cm soil depth; CTS, corn straw incorporated in the 0-20 cm soil depth.
Fig. 3 Soil organic carbon preservation capacity (CPC) under different soil aggregate-size fractions and corn straw returning modes in the 0-20 (a) and 20-40 cm (b) soil depths. Different lowercase letters within the same aggregate-size fraction indicate significant differences at P<0.05 level. CK, no corn straw returned; NTS, corn straw placed on undisturbed soil surface; MTS, corn straw incorporated in the 0-10 cm soil depth; CTS, corn straw incorporated in the 0-20 cm soil depth.
Fig. 4 Relationship between corn yield and SOC content. SOC is the average content in the 0-40 cm soil depth. CK, no corn straw returned; NTS, corn straw placed on undisturbed soil surface; MTS, corn straw incorporated in the 0-10 cm soil depth; CTS, corn straw incorporated in the 0-20 cm soil depth.
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