|
|
|
| Effects of different tillage and straw retention practices on soil aggregates and carbon and nitrogen sequestration in soils of the northwestern China |
Jun WU1,2, STEPHEN Yeboah3, Liqun CAI1,2, Renzhi ZHANG1,2,*( ), Peng QI1, Zhuzhu LUO1,2, Lingling LI2,4, Junhong XIE2,4, Bo DONG1 |
1 College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou 730070, China
2 Gansu Provincial Key Lab of Arid land Crop Science, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou 730070, China
3 Crops Research Institute, Kumasi 3785, Ghana
4College of Agronomy, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou 730070, China |
|
|
|
Abstract Soil tillage and straw retention in dryland areas may affect the soil aggregates and the distribution of total organic carbon. The aims of this study were to establish how different tillage and straw retention practices affect the soil aggregates and soil organic carbon (SOC) and total nitrogen (TN) contents in the aggregate fractions based on a long-term (approximately 15 years) field experimentin the semi-arid western Loess Plateau, northwestern China. The experiment included four soil treatments, i.e., conventional tillage with straw removed (T), conventional tillage with straw incorporated (TS), no tillage with straw removed (NT) and no tillage with straw retention (NTS), which were arranged in a complete randomized block design. The wet-sieving method was used to separate four size fractions of aggregates, namely, large macroaggregates (LA, >2000 μm), small macroaggregates (SA, 250-2000 μm), microaggregates (MA, 53-250 μm), and silt and clay (SC, <53 μm). Compared to the conventional tillage practices (including T and TS treatments), the percentages of the macroaggregate fractions (LA and SA) under the conservation tillage practices (including NT and NTS treatments) were increased by 41.2%-56.6%, with the NTS treatment having the greatest effect. For soil layers of 0-5, 5-10 and 10-30 cm, values of the mean weight diameter (MWD) under the TS and NTS treatments were 10.68%, 13.83% and 17.65%, respectively. They were 18.45%, 19.15% and 14.12% higher than those under the T treatment, respectively. The maximum contents of the aggregate-associated SOC and TN were detected in the SA fraction, with the greatest effect being observed for the NTS treatment. The SOC and TN contents were significantly higher under the NTS and TS treatments than under the T treatment. Also, the increases in SOC and TN levels were much higher in the straw-retention plots than in the straw-removed plots. The macroaggregates (including LA and SA fractions) were the major pools for SOC and TN, regardless of tillage practices, storing 3.25-6.81 g C/kg soil and 0.34-0.62 g N/kg soil. Based on the above results, we recommend the NTS treatment as the best option to boost soil aggregates and to reinforce carbon and nitrogen sequestration in soils in the semi-arid western Loess Plateau of northwestern China.
|
|
Received: 20 August 2018
Published: 10 August 2019
|
| Fund: This research was financially supported by the Scientific Research Start-up Funds for Openly-Recruited Doctors (GAU-KYQD-2018-39), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31571594, 41661049) and the National Science and Technology Supporting Program of China (2015BAD22B04-03). |
|
Corresponding Authors:
Renzhi ZHANG
E-mail: zhangrz@gsau.edu.cn
|
| About author: The first and second authors contributed equally to this work. |
| Cite this article:
Jun WU, STEPHEN Yeboah, Liqun CAI, Renzhi ZHANG, Peng QI, Zhuzhu LUO, Lingling LI, Junhong XIE, Bo DONG. Effects of different tillage and straw retention practices on soil aggregates and carbon and nitrogen sequestration in soils of the northwestern China. Journal of Arid Land, 2019, 11(4): 567-578.
URL:
http://jal.xjegi.com/10.1007/s40333-019-0065-y OR http://jal.xjegi.com/Y2019/V11/I4/567
|
|
|
| [1] | Aminiyan M M, Sinegani A A S, Sheklabadi M.2015. Aggregation stability and organic carbon fraction in a soil amended with some plant residues, nanozeolite, and natural zeolite. International Journal of Recycling of Organic Waste in Agriculture, 4(1): 11-22. | | [2] | Bandyopadhyay P K, Saha S, Mani P K, et al.2010. Effect of organic inputs on aggregate associated organic carbon concentration under long-term rice-wheat cropping system. Geoderma, 154(3-4): 379-386. | | [3] | Bhattacharyya R, Das T K, Pramanik P, et al.2013. Impacts of conservation agriculture on soil aggregation and aggregate-associated N under an irrigated agroecosystem of the Indo-Gangetic Plains. Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems, 96(2-3): 185-202. | | [4] | Blanco-Canqui H, Lal R.2007. Soil structure and organic carbon relationships following 10 years of wheat straw management in no-till. Soil and Tillage Research, 95(1-2): 240-254. | | [5] | Bottinelli N, Angers D A, Hallaire V, et al.2017. Tillage and fertilization practices affect soil aggregate stability in a HumicCambisol of Northwest France. Soil and Tillage Research, 170: 14-17. | | [6] | Bremner J M, Breitenbeck G A.1983. A simple method for determination of ammonium in semimicro-Kjeldahl analysis of soils and plant materials using a block digester. Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis, 14(10): 905-913. | | [7] | Bronick C J, Lal R.2005. Soil structure and management: a review. Geoderma, 124(1):3-22. | | [8] | Cambardella C A, Elliott E T.1994. Carbon and nitrogen dynamics of soil organic matter fractions from cultivated grassland soils. Soil Science Society of America Journal, 58(1): 123-130. | | [9] | Chinese Soil Taxonomy Cooperative Research Group. 1995. Chinese Soil Taxonomy (Revised Proposal). Beijing: Chinese Agricultural Science and Technology Press,137-145. (in Chinese) | | [10] | Devine S, Markewitz D, Hendrix P, et al.2014. Soil aggregates and associated organic matter under conventional tillage, no-tillage, and forest succession after three decades. PloSONE, 9(1): e84988. | | [11] | Elliott E T, Cambardella C A.1991. Physical separation of soil organic matter. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 34(1-4): 407-419. | | [12] | FAO.1990. Soil map of the world: revised legend. World Soil Resources Report 60. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome. | | [13] | He L, Cleverly J, Chen C, et al.2014. Diverse responses of winter wheat yield and water use to climate change and variability on the semiarid Loess Plateau in China. Agronomy Journal, 106(4): 1169-1178. | | [14] | Jacinthe P A, Lal R, Kimble J M.2002. Carbon dioxide evolution in runoff from simulated rainfall on long-term no-till and plowed soils in southwestern Ohio. Soil and Tillage Research, 66(1): 23-33. | | [15] | Jiang X, Hu Y, Bedell J H, et al.2011. Soil organic carbon and nutrient content in aggregate-size fractions of a subtropical rice soil under variable tillage. Soil Use and Management, 27(1): 28-35. | | [16] | Kay B D, Angers D A, Groenevelt P H, et al.1988. Quantifying the influence of cropping history on soil structure. Canadian Journal of Soil Science, 68(2):359-368. | | [17] | Kushwaha C P, Tripathi S K, Singh K P.2001. Soil organic matter and water-stable aggregates under different tillage and residue conditions in a tropical dryland agroecosystem. Applied Soil Ecology, 16(3): 229-241. | | [18] | Li X G, Wang Z F, Ma Q F, et al.2007. Crop cultivation and intensive grazing affect organic C pools and aggregate stability in arid grassland soil. Soil and Tillage Research, 95(1-2): 172-181. | | [19] | McBratney A, Field D.2015. Securing our soil. Soil Science and Plant Nutrition, 61(4): 587-591. | | [20] | Meng Q, Sun Y, Zhao J, et al.2014. Distribution of carbon and nitrogen in water-stable aggregates and soil stability under long-term manure application in solonetzic soils of the Songnen plain, northeast China. Journal of Soils and Sediments, 14(6): 1041-1049. | | [21] | Nouwakpo S K, Song J, Gonzalez J M.2018. Soil structural stability assessment with the fluidized bed, aggregate stability, and rainfall simulation on long-term tillage and crop rotation systems. Soil and Tillage Research, 178: 65-71. | | [22] | Sarker T C, Incerti G, Spccini R, et al.2018.Linking organic matter chemistry with soil aggregate stability: Insight from 13C NMR spectroscopy. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 117:175-184. | | [23] | Shang W, Li Y, Zhao X, et al.2017. Effects of Caragana microphyllaplantations on organic carbon sequestration in total and labile soil organic carbon fractions in the Horqin Sandy Land, northern China. Journal of Arid Land, 9(5): 688-700. | | [24] | Six J, Paustian K, Elliott E T, et al.2000. Soil structure and organic matter I. Distribution of aggregate-size classes and aggregate-associated carbon. Soil Science Society of America Journal, 64(2): 681-689. | | [25] | Somasundaram J, Chaudhary R S, Kumar DA, et al.2018. Effect of contrasting tillage and cropping systems on soil aggregation, carbon pools and aggregate-associated carbon in rainfed Vertisols. European Journal of Soil Science, 69(5): 879-891. | | [26] | Song K, Yang J, Xue Y, et al.2016. Influence of tillage practices and straw incorporation on soil aggregates, organic carbon, and crop yields in a rice-wheat rotation system. Scientific Reports, 6: 36602. | | [27] | Tisdall J M, Oades J M.1982. Organic matter and water-stable aggregates in soils. Journal of Soil Science, 33(2): 141-163. | | [28] | Walkley A, Black I A.1934. An examination of the method for determining soil organic matter, and a proposed modification of the chromic acid titration method. Soil Science, 37:29-38. | | [29] | Yeboah S, Zhang R, Cai L, et al.2016a. Greenhouse gas emissions in a spring wheat-field pea sequence under different tillage practices in semi-arid Northwest China. Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems, 106(1): 77-91. | | [30] | Yeboah S, Zhang R, Cai L, et al.2016b. Tillage effect on soil organic carbon, microbial biomass carbon and crop yield in spring wheat-field pea rotation. Plant Soil Environment, 62(6): 279-285. | | [31] | Zeng Q C, Darboux F, Man C, et al.2018. Soil aggregate stability under different rain conditions for three vegetation types on the Loess Plateau (China). Catena, 167: 276-283. | | [32] | Zhang R Z, Huang G B, Cai L Q, et al.2013. Dry farmland practice involving multi-conservation tillage measures in the Loess Plateau. Chinese Journal of Eco-Agriculture, 21(1): 61-69. (in Chinese) | | [33] | Zhang S, Li Q, Zhang X, et al.2012. Effects of conservation tillage on soil aggregation and aggregate binding agents in black soil of Northeast China. Soil and Tillage Research, 124(4): 196-202. | | [34] | Zhao X Z, Li F M, Mo F, et al.2012. Integrated conservation solutions for the endangered Loess Plateau of Northwest China. Pakistan Journal of Botany, 44(3): 77-83. | | [35] | Zheng H B, Liu W R, Zheng J Y, et al.2018. Effect of long-term tillage on soil aggregates and aggregate-associated carbon in black soil of Northeast China. PloSONE, 13(6): e0199523. |
|
|
Viewed |
|
|
|
Full text
|
|
|
|
|
Abstract
|
|
|
|
|
Cited |
|
|
|
|
| |
Shared |
|
|
|
|
| |
Discussed |
|
|
|
|
