Long-term effects of cropped vs. fallow and fertilizer amendments on soil organic matter - I. Organic carbon

A long-term field experiment, conducted since 1962 in Gumpenstein (Austria) on a Dystric Cambisol, was used for the present investigation. We combined a physical fractionation procedure with the determination of natural abundance of C-13 and FT-IR spectroscopy to study the influence of fertilizer amendments (organic manure and mineral fertilizers) and management practices (fallow vs. cropped) on changes in organic carbon (OC) associated with different particle-size fractions. The OC content in bulk soil decreased or was not affected by slurry+straw, PK, and NPK treatments in both fallow and cropped plots after 28 and 38 yr of treatment. However, OC in plots receiving organic manures increased depending on the quality of the organic manures applied. The ranking among the different treatments under both fallow and cropped plots was: animal manure (liquid) > animal manure (solid) > cattle slurry = slurry+straw = PK = NPK Results showed that the two types of management practices, fallow (non-tilled) vs. cropped (tilled) had effects on OC concentrations. Comparing the OC contribution of particle-size fractions to the total OC amount revealed the following ranking: silt > clay > fine sand > coarse sand except in the plots receiving solid or liquid animal manure. Size fractions within treatments showed larger variations of C-13 abundances than bulk samples between treatments. The natural abundances of C-13 increased especially in cropped (and tilled) plots. It was shown by cluster analysis that FT-IR spectra differentiated between the different treatments originating from different land management practices. The present study revealed that below-ground C deposition by agricultural plants can hardly compensate the C losses due to tillage.