Effect of cover crop management on soil organic matter

• Published in: Geoderma Vol. 130; no. 3; pp. 229 - 239
• Main Authors: Ding, Guangwei, Liu, Xiaobing, Herbert, Stephen, Novak, Jeffrey, Amarasiriwardena, Dula, Xing, Baoshan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.02.2006; Elsevier
• Subjects: Agronomy. Soil science and plant productions; Biological and medical sciences; Earth sciences; Earth, ocean, space; Exact sciences and technology; Fulvic acid; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humic acid; Light fraction; Organic carbon; Organic matter; Secale cereale; Soils; Surficial geology; Vicia villosa; Organic carbon; Organic matter; SOC; HS; DRIFT; CPMAS-TOSS NMR; SOM; ANOVA; Light fraction; HA; LF; FA; Fulvic acid; TCN; Humic acid; Vetch; Monocotyledones; Fourier transformation; Suppression; Cover crop; Cross polarization; Gramineae; Angiospermae; soils; Nitrogen fertilizer; Rye; Secale cereale; Aliphatic compound; Diffuse reflection; nitrogen; Characteristic; humic substances; nuclear magnetic resonance; Magic angle; humic acids; Treatment; Characteristics; infrared spectra; organic materials; Spermatophyta; Drift; Spinning; characterization; Reflectance
• ISSN: 0016-7061; 1872-6259
• DOI: 10.1016/j.geoderma.2005.01.019

Characterization of soil organic matter (SOM) is important for determining the overall quality of soils, and cover crop system may change SOM characteristics. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of cover crops on the chemical and structural composition of SOM. We isolated humic substances (HS) from soils with the following cover crop treatments: (a) vetch ( Vicia Villosa Roth.)/rye ( Sesale cereale L.), (b) rye alone, and (c) check (no cover crops) that were treated with various nitrogen (N) fertilizer rates. CPMAS-TOSS (cross-polarization magic-angle-spinning and total sideband suppression) 13C NMR results indicated that humic acids (HA) from soils under rye only were more aromatic and less aliphatic in character than the other two cover crop systems without fertilizer N treatment. Based on the DRIFT (diffuse reflectance Fourier transform infrared) spectra peak O/R ratios, the intensities of oxygen-containing functional groups to aliphatic and aromatic (referred to as recalcitrant) groups, the highest ratio was found in the HA from the vetch/rye system with fertilizer N. The lowest ratio occurred at the vetch/rye system without fertilizer N treatment. The O/R ratio of fulvic acids (FA) can be ranked as: vetch/rye without fertilizer>vetch/rye with fertilizer>no cover crop without fertilizer>rye alone (with or without fertilizer) soils. Both organic carbon (OC) and light fraction (LF) contents were higher in soils under cover crop treatments with and without fertilizer N than soils with no cover crop. These chemical and spectroscopic data show that cover crops had a profound influence on the SOM and LF characteristics.