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Response of soil organic carbon fractions to increasing rates of crop residue return in a wheat-maize cropping system in north-central China

Soil Research, ISSN: 1838-675X, Vol: 56, Issue: 8, Page: 856-864
2018
  • 10
    Citations
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  • 18
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Metric Options:   Counts1 Year3 Year

Metrics Details

  • Citations
    10
    • Citation Indexes
      10
  • Captures
    18

Article Description

Labile organic carbon (C) in soil can act as a sensitive indicator of its quality, and understanding its response to crop residue incorporation rates is critical to increase soil C storage by residue return in conjunction with chemical fertilisation. A 30-year field experiment was carried out to study the effects of various rates of maize residue return on soil organic C fractions in the presence of chemical fertilisers in a wheat-maize cropping system in north-central China. Studies included a no-fertiliser and no-residues control (CK) and maize residue return at rates of 0 (S0), 2250 (S1), 4500 (S2), and 9000 kg ha (S3) using chemical fertilisers. Soil total organic C (TOC) and labile organic C fractions were determined. The S0 treatment increased soil microbial biomass C (MBC), KMnO-oxidisable C (KMnO-C), and TOC, but did not change water-soluble organic C (WSOC), light fraction organic C (LFOC), and particulate organic C (POC), relative to CK. All organic C fractions did not differ between S0 and S1 however, S2-S3 increased MBC, WSOC, LFOC, POC, KMnO-C, and TOC by 31.8-41.0%, 17.7-28.6%, 33.9-81.3%, 35.3-82.4%, 19.3-42.8%, and 9.7-20.4% compared with S0 respectively. The KMnO-C had the highest correlation with TOC, with LFOC and POC showing higher sensitivity to different residue-return rates. Redundancy analysis showed that LFOC, POC, and KMnO-C were mainly affected by residue-C and root-C, while MBC was closely correlated with rhizodeposition-C levels. Overall, low rates of residue return did not affect soil labile organic C and TOC, with they only started to increase significantly when annual residue return exceeded 4500 kg ha under chemical fertilisation and the rate of increase for labile organic C was found to be higher than for non-labile C as residue inputs were increased.

Bibliographic Details

Zhao, S. C.; Huang, S. W.; Qiu, S. J.; He, P.

CSIRO Publishing

Environmental Science; Agricultural and Biological Sciences; Earth and Planetary Sciences

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