Effects of tillage management on soil carbon decomposition and its relationship with soil chemistry properties in rice paddy fields

• Published in: Journal of environmental management 2021-02, Vol.279, p.111595-111595, Article 111595
• Main Authors: Qi, Jian-Ying, Jing, Zhen-Huan, He, Cong, Liu, Qiu-Yue, Wang, Xing, Kan, Zheng-Rong, Zhao, Xin, Xiao, Xiao-Ping, Zhang, Hai-Lin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Agriculture; Carbon; Carbon Dioxide - analysis; Carbon protection; Non-microbial CO2 emission; Oryza; Soil; Soil carbon mineralization; Tillage practice
• ISSN: 0301-4797; 1095-8630
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2020.111595

Decreasing the soil organic carbon (SOC) decomposition is critical to improve the quality of the soil and mitigate atmospheric CO2 emissions. To improve the ability to protect the SOC by optimizing tillage management, this study investigated the laboratory-based SOC mineralization (decomposition) and soil chemical properties under different tillage practices, including no tillage with straw mulch (NTS), rotary tillage with straw incorporated (RTS), moldboard plow tillage with straw incorporated (CTS) and moldboard plow tillage with straw removal (CT). Soil samples of six sampling dates from April 2017 to October 2018 were incubated at 25 °C and 70% water holding capacity for 60 d. Repeated Variance Analyses were conducted to compare the means of different treatments. The results showed that the average cumulative SOC mineralization (Cm) at the 0–5 cm soil depth was 7.09 g CO2 kg−1 soil under NTS, which was higher (P