Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-02T21:57:34.091Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Increase in maize yield and soil aggregate-associated carbon in North China due to long-term conservation tillage

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 November 2021

Ying Shen ,
Tingting Zhang ,
Jichao Cui ,
Siyu Chen ,
Huifang Han Open the ORCID record for Huifang Han [Opens in a new window]  and
Tangyuan Ning
Ying Shen
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Crop Biology, Key Laboratory of Crop Water Physiology and Drought Tolerance Germplasm Improvement, Ministry of Agriculture, College of Agronomy, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai’an, People’s Republic of China
Tingting Zhang
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Crop Biology, Key Laboratory of Crop Water Physiology and Drought Tolerance Germplasm Improvement, Ministry of Agriculture, College of Agronomy, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai’an, People’s Republic of China
Jichao Cui
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Crop Biology, Key Laboratory of Crop Water Physiology and Drought Tolerance Germplasm Improvement, Ministry of Agriculture, College of Agronomy, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai’an, People’s Republic of China
Siyu Chen
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Crop Biology, Key Laboratory of Crop Water Physiology and Drought Tolerance Germplasm Improvement, Ministry of Agriculture, College of Agronomy, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai’an, People’s Republic of China
Huifang Han*
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Crop Biology, Key Laboratory of Crop Water Physiology and Drought Tolerance Germplasm Improvement, Ministry of Agriculture, College of Agronomy, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai’an, People’s Republic of China
Tangyuan Ning
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Crop Biology, Key Laboratory of Crop Water Physiology and Drought Tolerance Germplasm Improvement, Ministry of Agriculture, College of Agronomy, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai’an, People’s Republic of China
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

The North China Plain (NCP) is an important agricultural area, where conventional tillage (CT) is used year-round. However, long-term CT has damaged the soil structure, threatening agricultural sustainability. Since 2002, we have conducted a long-term tillage experiment in the NCP to explore the effects of different types of tillage on soil and crop yield. As part of long-term conservation tillage, we conducted a 2-year study in 2016/2017 to determine the impact of no tillage (NT), subsoiling (SS), rotary tillage (RT) and CT on soil aggregate distribution, aggregate-associated organic carbon (AOC), aggregate-associated microbial biomass carbon (AMBC), and maize yield. Compared to CT, NT increased the content of macro-aggregates (+4.8%), aggregate-AOC (+8.3%), and aggregate-AMBC (+18.3%), but decreased maize yield (−11.5%). SS increased the contents of macro-aggregates (+5%), aggregate-AOC (+14.7%), and aggregate-AMBC (+16%); although the yield increase was not significant (+0.22%), it had the highest economic benefit among the four tillage measures. RT had no significant advantage when considering the above soil variables; moreover, it reduced maize yield by 16.1% compared with CT. Overall, SS is a suitable tillage measure to improve soil macro-aggregate content, carbon content, yield, and economic benefit in the NCP area.

Keywords

Aggregate-associated carbonGrain yieldSubsoiling
Type
Research Article
Information
Experimental Agriculture , Volume 57 , Issue 4 , August 2021 , pp. 270 - 281
Check for updates
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arai, M., Miura, T., Tsuzura, H., Minamiya, Y. and Kaneko, N. (2018). Two-year responses of earthworm abundance, soil aggregates, and soil carbon to no-tillage and fertilization. Geoderma 332, 135–141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bao, S.D. (2000). Soil Agrochemical Analysis. Beijing: China Agriculture Press.Google Scholar
Blanco-Canqui, H. and Ruis, S.J. (2018). No-tillage and soil physical environment. Geoderma 326, 164–200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boomsma, C.R., Santini, J.B., West, T.D., Brewer, J.C., McIntyre, L.M. and Vyn, T.J. (2010). Maize grain yield responses to plant height variability resulting from crop rotation and tillage system in a long-term experiment. Soil and Tillage Research 106, 227–240.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cambardella, C.A. and Elliott, E.T. (1993). Carbon and nitrogen distribution in aggregates from cultivated and native Grassland soils. Soil Science Society of America Journal 57, 1071–1076.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chan, K.Y., Heenan, D.P. and Oates, A. (2002). Soil carbon fractions and relationship to soil quality under different tillage and stubble management. Soil and Tillage Research 63, 133–139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, J.G., Tian, D.L., Yan, W.D., Xiang, W.H. and Fang, X. (2011). Progress on study of carbon sequestration in soil aggregates. Journal of Central South University of Forestry and Technology 31, 74–80.Google Scholar
Chen, X.W., Wang, N., Shi, X.H., Zhang, X.P., Liang, A.Z., Jia, S.X., Fan, R.Q. and Wei, S.C. (2013). Evaluating tillage practices impacts on soil organic carbon based on least limiting water range. Acta Ecologica Sinica 33, 2676–2683.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Choudhury, S.G., Srivastava, S., Singh, S., Chaudhari, S.K., Sharma, D.K., Singh, S.K., Sarkar, D. (2014). Tillage and residue management effects on soil aggregation, organic carbon dynamics and yield attribute in rice–wheat cropping system under reclaimed sodic soil. Soil and Tillage Research 136, 76–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doni, S., Macci, C., Longo, V., Souid, A., Garcia, C. and Masciandaro, G. (2017). Innovative system for biochemical monitoring of degraded soils restoration. Catena an Interdisciplinary Journal of Soil 152, 173–181.Google Scholar
Govaerts, B., Verhulst, N., Castellanos-Navarrete, A., Sayre, K.D., Dixon, J. and Dendooven, L. (2009). Conservation agriculture and soil carbon sequestration: between myth and farmer reality. Critical Reviews in Plant Sciences 28, 97–122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gu, S., Wu, S., Guan, Y., Zhai, C., Zhang, Z., Bello, A., Guo, X. and Yang, W. (2020). Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal community was affected by tillage practices rather than residue management in black soil of northeast China. Soil and Tillage Research 198, 104552.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gupta, V.V.S.R. and Germida, J.J. (2015). Soil aggregation: influence on microbial biomass and implications for biological processes. Research Journal of Soil Biology 80, A3–A9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
He, J.N., Shi, Y., Zhao, J.Y. and Yu, Z.W. (2020). Strip rotary tillage with subsoiling increases winter wheat yield by alleviating leaf senescence and increasing grain filling. The Crop Journal 8, 327–340.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hou, Q.X., Li, R., Jia, Z.K. and Han, Q.F. (2016). Research progress on ecological effects under the rotational tillage patterns in agricultural regions of China. Acta Ecologica Sinica 36, 1215–1223.Google Scholar
Jastrow, J.D. (1996). Soil aggregate formation and the accrual of particulate and mineral-associated organic matter. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 28, 665–676.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jing, L., Wu, H.J., Wu, X.P., Cai, D.X., Yao, Y.Q., Lu, J.J., Zheng, K. and Liu, Z.P. (2015). Impact of long-term conservation tillage on soil aggregate formation and aggregate organic carbon contents. Journal of Plant Nutrition and Fertilizer 21, 378–386.Google Scholar
Kraut-Cohen, J., Zolti, A., Shaltiel-Harpaz, L., Argaman, E., Rabinovich, R., Green, S.J. and Minz, D. (2020). Effects of tillage practices on soil microbiome and agricultural parameters. Science of the Total Environment 705, 135791.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kuang, N., Tan, D., Li, H., Gou, Q., Li, Q. and Han, H. (2020). Effects of subsoiling before winter wheat on water consumption characteristics and yield of summer maize on the North China Plain. Agricultural Water Management 227, 105786.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kushwa, V., Hati, K.M., Sinha, K.N., Singh, R.K., Mohanty, M.J., Jain, R.C. and Patra, A.K. (2016). Long-term conservation tillage effect on soil organic carbon and available phosphorous content in vertisols of central India. Agricultural Research 5, 353–361.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lal, R. (2009). Soils and food sufficiency. A review. Agronomy for Sustainable Development 29, 113–133.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamm, F.R., Aiken, R.M. and Kheira, A.A.A. (2009). Corn yield and water use characteristics as affected by tillage, plant density, and irrigation. Transactions of the ASABE 52, 133–143.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, J., Wu, H.J., Wu, X.P., Cai, D.X., Yao, Y.Q., Lv, J.J., Zheng, K. and Liu, Z.P. (2015). Impact of long – term conservation tillage on soil aggregate formation and aggregate organic carbon contents. Journal of Plant Nutrition and Fertilizer 21, 378–386.Google Scholar
Li, J., Wu, H.J., Wu, X.P., Wang, B.S., Yao, Y.Q. and Lv, J.J. (2021). Long-term conservation tillage enhanced organic carbon and nitrogen contents of particulate organic matter in soil aggregates. Scientia Agricultura Sinica 54, 334–344.Google Scholar
Liu, D., Zhang, X., Li, J. and Wang, X.D. (2018). Effects of different tillage patterns on soil properties, maize yield and water use efficiency in Weibei Highland, China. Chinese Journal of Applied Ecology 29, 573–582.Google ScholarPubMed
Liu, Z. (2019). Effects of tillage and straw mulching on soil carbon sources and photosynthetic carbon capture of crops. D. Phil. Thesis, Shandong Agricultural University.Google Scholar
Lupwayi, N.Z., Arshad, M.A., Rice, W.A. and Clayton, G.W. (2001a). Bacterial diversity in water-stable aggregates of soils under conventional and zero tillage management. Applied Soil Ecology 16, 251–261.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lupwayi, N.Z., Monreal, M.A., Clayton, G.W., Grant, C.A., Johnston, A.M. and Rice, W.A. (2001b). Soil microbial biomass and diversity respond to tillage and sulphur fertilizers. Canadian Journal of Soil Science 81, 577–589.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Müller-Nedebock, D. and Chaplot, V. (2015). Soil carbon losses by sheet erosion: a potentially critical contribution to the global carbon cycle. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 40, 1803–1813.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Qiu, L., Wei, X., Gao, J. and Zhang, X. (2015). Dynamics of soil aggregate-associated organic carbon along an afforestation chronosequence. Plant and Soil 391, 237–251.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sarker, J.R., Singh, B.P., Cowie, A.L., Fang, Y.Y., Collins, D., Badgery, W. and Dalal, R.C. (2018). Agricultural management practices impacted carbon and nutrient concentrations in soil aggregates, with minimal influence on aggregate stability and total carbon and nutrient stocks in contrasting soils. Soil and Tillage Research 178, 209–223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schneider, F., Don, A., Hennings, I., Schmittmann, O. and Seidel, S.J. (2017). The effect of deep tillage on crop yield – What do we really know? Soil and Tillage Research 174, 193–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Six, J., Elliott, E.T., Paustian, K. and Doran, J.W. (1998). Aggregation and soil organic matter accumulation in cultivated and native Grassland soils. Soil Science Society of America Journal 62, 1367–1377.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Somasundaram, J., Chaudhary, R.S., Awanish, K.D., Biswas, A.K., Sinha, N.K., Mohanty, M., Hati, K.M., Jha, P., Sankar, M., Patra, A.K., Dalal, R. and Chaudhari, S.K. (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, 879–891.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Somasundaram, J., Reeves, S., Wang, W.J., Heenan, M. and Dalal, R. (2017). Impact of 47 years of no tillage and stubble retention on soil aggregation and carbon distribution in a vertisol. Soil Degradation and Development 31, 1589–1602.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sun, B., Jia, S., Zhang, S., McLaughlin, N.B., Zhang, X., Liang, A., Chen, X., Wei, S. and Liu, S. (2016). Tillage, seasonal and depths effects on soil microbial properties in black soil of Northeast China. Soil and Tillage Research 155, 421–428.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tian, S.Z., Wang, Y., Zhang, Y.F., Bian, W.F., Dong, L., Luo, J.F. and Guo, H.H. (2017). Increasing soil aggregate carbon pool by turning rotary tillage into deep loosening and straw returning. Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering 33, 133–140. (In Chinese).Google Scholar
Vance, E.D., Brookes, P.C. and Jenkinson, D.S. (1987). An extraction method for measuring soil microbial biomass C. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 19, 703–707.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wang, L., Li, J., Li, J. and Bai, W.X. (2014). Effects of tillage rotation and fertilization on soil aggregates and organic carbon content in corn field in Weibei Highland. Chinese Journal of Applied Ecology 25, 759–768.Google ScholarPubMed
Wang, X.B., Cai, D.X., Hoogmoed, W.B., Oenema, O. and Perdok, U.D. (2007). Developments in conservation tillage in rainfed regions of North China. Soil and Tillage Research 93, 239–250.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wang, X.B., Wu, H.J., Dai, K., Zhang, D.C., Feng, Z.H., Zhao, Q.S., Wu, X.P., Jin, K., Cai, D.X., Oenema, O. and Hoogmoed, W.B. (2012). Tillage and crop residue effects on rainfed wheat and maize production in northern China. Field Crops Research 132, 106–116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wang, Y.L. and Li, J. (2014). Study of tillage patterns suitable for soil physicochemical properties and crop yields in wheat/maize fields. Journal of Plant Nutrition and Fertilizer 20, 1139–1150.Google Scholar
Xu, J., Han, H.F., Ning, T.Y., Li, Z.J. and Lal, R. (2019). Long–term effects of tillage and straw management on soil organic carbon, crop yield, and yield stability in a wheat–maize system. Field Crops Research 233, 33–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yang, C., Liu, N. and Zhang, Y. (2018). Soil aggregates regulate the impact of soil bacterial and fungal communities on soil respiration. Geoderma 337, 444–452.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhang, J., Wei, Y., Liu, J., Yuan, J., Liang, Y., Ren, J. and Cai, H. (2019). Effects of maize straw and its biochar application on organic and humic carbon in water-stable aggregates of a Mollisol in Northeast China: a five-year field experiment. Soil and Tillage Research 190, 1–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhang, Y., Wang, R., Wang, S., Wang, H., Xu, Z., Jia, G., Wang, X.L. and Li, J. (2017). Effects of different sub−soiling frequencies incorporated into no−tillage systems on soil properties and crop yield in dryland wheat−maize rotation system. Field Crops Research 209, 151–158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhao, X., Zhang, R., Xue, F.J., Pu, C., Zhang, X.Q., Liu, S.L., Chen, F., Rattan, L. and Zhang, H.L. (2015). Chapter one – management-induced changes to soil organic carbon in China: a meta-analysis. Advances in Agronomy 134, 1–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhou, H., Lv, Y.Z., Yang, Z.C. and Li, B.G. (2007). Effects of conservation tillage on soil aggregates in Huabei Plain China. Scientia Agricultura Sinica 40, 1973–1979.Google Scholar
Zhou, Y., Chen, Y.X., Jiang, F., Hu, Y.Q., Long, L., Pei, L.Z., Li, J.B. and Xu, K.W. (2020). Responses of soil microbial biomass carbon, nitrogen and microbial entropy to different materials returned to corn fields. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation 34, 173–180.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Shen et al. supplementary material

Tables S1-S2

Download Shen et al. supplementary material(File)
File 19.8 KB