Journal
SOIL & TILLAGE RESEARCH
Volume 112, Issue 2, Pages 133-139Publisher
ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.still.2010.12.006
Keywords
Carbon; Nitrogen; Soil organic matter; No-till; Crop residue; N fertilisation; Vertisol; delta C-13; delta N-15; Subtropical region; Root biomass
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Conservation agricultural practices such as no-till (NT) and crop residue retention (CRR), and nutrient application, increases soil organic C (SOC) and are considered effective measures of C sequestration in soil. However, long-term effects of individual components of conservation agriculture and their interactions on SOC are rarely evaluated; as a result, conflicting findings of these practices on SOC are reported in the literature. We measured SOC and soil total N in a balanced factorial experiment, conducted on a Vertisol, consisting of tillage practices (conventional mechanical tillage, CT; and no-tillage, NT), crop residue management (crop residue burned, CRB; and crop residue retained, CRR) and N fertiliser application (no N, 30 kg N ha(-1) year(-1); and 90 kg N ha(-1) year(-1)). The site, in a semiarid subtropical region, was cropped with wheat (Triticum aestivum L) except for 3 years of barley (Hordeum vulgare L), for 40 years using conservation practices. In general, tillage effects on SOC and soil total N were small. Crop residue and N fertiliser interactively increased SOC and total N stocks at 0-0.1 m depth and cumulative stocks at 0-0.2 m and 0-0.3 m depths; that is, CRR increased SOC and soil total N only when N fertiliser was applied, and fertilisation increased SOC and soil total N only under CRR treatment. Depletion of delta C-13 values in CRR treatments and delta N-15 values in N treatments strongly indicated the contribution of crop residue (and root biomass) and N fertiliser to soil organic matter in this Vertisol. From this study and previous findings from this site, it appears, however, the effects of crop residue retention and N fertiliser occurred in early years, and did not continually increase SOC and total soil N with increasing period of conservation practices. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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