Dynamics of Soil Organic Carbon and Labile Carbon Fractions in Soil Aggregates Affected by Different Tillage Managements

Xiaolin Shen, Lili Wang, Qichen Yang, Weiming Xiu, Gang Li, Jianning Zhao and Guilong Zhang
Additional contact information
Xiaolin Shen: Agro-Environmental Protection Institute, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Tianjin 300191, China
Lili Wang: Agro-Environmental Protection Institute, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Tianjin 300191, China
Qichen Yang: Agro-Environmental Protection Institute, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Tianjin 300191, China
Weiming Xiu: Agro-Environmental Protection Institute, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Tianjin 300191, China
Gang Li: Agro-Environmental Protection Institute, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Tianjin 300191, China
Jianning Zhao: Agro-Environmental Protection Institute, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Tianjin 300191, China
Guilong Zhang: Agro-Environmental Protection Institute, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Tianjin 300191, China

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 3, 1-11

Abstract: Our study aimed to provide a scientific basis for an appropriate tillage management of wheat-maize rotation system, which is beneficial to the sustainable development of agriculture in the fluvo-aquic soil areas in China. Four tillage treatments were investigated after maize harvest, including rotary tillage with straw returning (RT), deep ploughing with straw returning (DP), subsoiling with straw returning (SS), and no tillage with straw mulching (NT). We evaluated soil organic carbon (SOC), dissolved organic carbon (DOC), permanganate oxidizable carbon (POXC), microbial biomass carbon (MBC), and particulate organic carbon (POC) in bulk soil and soil aggregates with five particle sizes (>5 mm, 5–2 mm, 2–1 mm, 1–0.25 mm, and <0.25 mm) under different tillage managements. Results showed that compared with RT treatment, NT treatment not only increased soil aggregate stability, but also enhanced SOC, DOC, and POC contents, especially those in large size macroaggregates. DP treatment also showed positive effects on soil aggregate stability and labile carbon fractions (DOC and POXC). Consequently, we suggest that no tillage or deep ploughing, rather than rotary tillage, could be better tillage management considering carbon storage. Meanwhile, we implied that mass fractal dimension (D m ) and POXC could be effective indicators of soil quality, as affected by tillage managements.

Keywords: tillage; soil aggregates; soil organic carbon (SOC); labile carbon fractions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/3/1541/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/3/1541/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:3:p:1541-:d:491301

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().