Long-term fertilization and intensive cropping enhance carbon and nitrogen accumulated in soil clay-sized particles of red soil in South China

• Published in: Journal of soils and sediments Vol. 20; no. 4; pp. 1824 - 1833
• Main Authors: Xu, Hu, Liu, Kailou, Zhang, Wenju, Rui, Yichao, Zhang, Jingye, Wu, Lei, Colinet, Gilles, Huang, Qinghai, Chen, Xianni, Xu, Minggang
• Format: Journal Article Web Resource
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.04.2020; Springer Nature B.V; Ecomed Pub
• Subjects: Accumulation; Aggregates; Aggregation; Agriculture & agronomie; Agriculture & agronomy; application rate; Biological fertilization; Carbon; carbon sequestration; Cereal crops; China; Clay; Clay minerals; Clay soils; Climate change; Climate change mitigation; Compound fertilizers; corn; Cropping systems; Earth and Environmental Science; Environment; Environmental Physics; Fertility; Fertilization; Fertilizer application; Fertilizers; Fractionation; intensive cropping; Life sciences; long term experiments; manure spreading; Manures; Mineral fertilizers; Mitigation; Nitrogen; Nonlinear response; NPK fertilizers; Organic carbon; Phosphorus; Pig manure; Potassium; Sciences du vivant; Sec 1 • Soil Organic Matter Dynamics and Nutrient Cycling • Research Article; Silt; Soil; soil aggregation; Soil analysis; Soil fertility; Soil improvement; soil organic carbon; Soil Science & Conservation; Soils; stable isotopes; total nitrogen; China; Long-term fertilization; Soil aggregation; Organic carbon; Total nitrogen; Physical particle-sized fractionation
• ISSN: 1439-0108; 1614-7480; 1614-7480
• DOI: 10.1007/s11368-019-02544-8

Purpose Understanding the underlying mechanism of soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) accumulation is of great significance for soil C sequestration and climate change mitigation, as well as soil fertility improvement. The objective of this study was to evaluate the response of C and N accumulation in aggregates and fine soil particles to long-term mineral fertilizer and manure application. Materials and methods Five treatments from a long-term experiment with double maize cropping were examined in this study, i.e., (1) no fertilizer (control); (2) mineral nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium application (NPK); (3) doubled application rate of the NPK (2NPK); (4) pig manure alone (M); and (5) mineral NPK fertilizers and manure combination (NPKM). By using physical particle-sized fractionation, we analyzed soil organic carbon (OC) and total nitrogen (N), and δ 13 C of OC in bulk soil and aggregates (53–2000 μm) and, coarse silt-sized fraction (5–53 μm), fine silt-sized fraction (2–5 μm), and clay-sized fraction (< 2 μm) under those five treatments. Results and discussion Fertilizer application for 24 years, particularly M and NPKM treatments, significantly increased the concentration and proportion of OC and total N associated with aggregates and clay-sized fraction as compared with control. Manure application significantly increased the proportion of OC by 6.6–7.8 points in aggregates, whereas it was by 22.6–25.0 points in clay-sized fraction. Clay-sized fraction-associated C and N showed a non-linear response to C and N accumulation in bulk soil, contributing approximately 47% and 69% to soil OC and total N, respectively. Moreover, the mass proportion of aggregates and the mass ratio of aggregates to fine soil particles increased significantly with C accumulation in fine silt-sized and clay-sized fraction. Conclusions Organic carbon and total nitrogen accumulation in soil clay-sized particles play important role in soil C and N sequestration in red soil. Our results also suggested that C accumulation in fine soil particles might benefit soil aggregation in intensive cropping system of South China.