Divergent accumulation of microbial and plant necromass along paddy soil development in a millennium scale

Plant inputs and their subsequent microbial transformations drive the formation and accumulation of soil organic carbon (SOC). Rice paddy is more conducive to SOC accumulation than uplands, primarily because of pre-dominant anaerobic conditions. However, the role of microbes and plants in the buildup of SOC under prolonged rice cultivation has not been well explored in the literature. In a millennium-scale paddy soil chronosequence, we used amino sugars (AS) and lignin phenols (LN) as tracers to investigate microbial and plant-derived necromass changes and evaluated their contributions to SOC accumulation with increasing rice cultivation duration. Across the 1000-year rice cultivation process, AS and LN contents increased with SOC accumulation. Soil pH and salinity are considered to play vital roles in regulating the retention of AS and LN. In contrast to the control of soil enzyme activity on LN accrual (e.g., peroxidase), the microbial biomass and fungi-to-bacteria ratio greatly affected AS accumulation in paddy soil. The components of AS and LN also changed with time, exhibiting a significant accumulation of galactosamine and cinnamyl phenol units in the late stage. Long-term rice cultivation is more conducive to the accumulation of bacterial residues. AS demonstrated a greater contribution to SOC than LN compounds within 100 years, whereas the contribution of LN ultimately exceeded AS in the late stage. Concurrently, we found a higher degree of oxidative lignin degradation in younger soils and reduced degradation with increasing duration of rice paddy cultivation. The accumulation of microbial necromass is more than plant necromass in the early stage, and it is the opposite in the late stage. Our results are critical to understand the formation and sequestration processes of SOC in paddy soils.

Automated summary

Plant inputs and microbial transformations drive SOC formation and accumulation. Rice paddy is more conducive to SOC accumulation due to anaerobic conditions. The role of microbes and plants in SOC buildup under prolonged rice cultivation has not been well explored.