Long-term conservation tillage improves soil stoichiometry balance and crop productivity based on a 17-year experiment in a semi-arid area of northern China

Zhijie Ren; Xiaojie Han; Haoxiang Feng; Lifang Wang; Geng Ma; Junhong Li; Junjie Lv; Wenzhong Tian; Xinhua He; Yanan Zhao; Chenyang Wang

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.168283

Long-term conservation tillage improves soil stoichiometry balance and crop productivity based on a 17-year experiment in a semi-arid area of northern China

Sci Total Environ. 2024 Jan 15:908:168283. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.168283. Epub 2023 Nov 2.

Authors

Zhijie Ren¹, Xiaojie Han², Haoxiang Feng², Lifang Wang², Geng Ma², Junhong Li³, Junjie Lv³, Wenzhong Tian³, Xinhua He⁴, Yanan Zhao⁵, Chenyang Wang⁶

Affiliations

¹ College of Resources and Environment, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou 450002, China; College of Agronomy, State Key Laboratory of Wheat and Maize Crop Science, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou 450002, China; National Engineering Research Center for Wheat, Zhengzhou 450002, China.
² College of Agronomy, State Key Laboratory of Wheat and Maize Crop Science, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou 450002, China; National Engineering Research Center for Wheat, Zhengzhou 450002, China.
³ Luoyang Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Science, Luoyang 471023, China.
⁴ School of Biological Sciences, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA 6009, Australia; Department of Land, Air and Water Resources, University of California at Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
⁵ College of Resources and Environment, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou 450002, China. Electronic address: zhaoyanan@henau.edu.cn.
⁶ College of Agronomy, State Key Laboratory of Wheat and Maize Crop Science, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou 450002, China; National Engineering Research Center for Wheat, Zhengzhou 450002, China. Electronic address: xmzxwang@163.com.

PMID: 37924889
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.168283

Abstract

Although conservation tillage has been widely implemented to address the challenge to improve crop yield and soil quality with fewer environmental costs, its long-term effects on crop yields and soil stoichiometry balance remain uncertain. Here, four different long-term (17-year) tillage practices (conventional tillage (CT), deep scarification (DS), no tillage (NT), and ridge tillage (RT)) were conducted in northern China to evaluate their effects on crop yield, soil nutrients, C sequestration, and soil stoichiometry. The conservation tillage (DS, NT, and RT) increased the recent 5-year average yields by 12.2 %-20.1 % compared with CT, respectively. RT showed the highest C sequestration potential of 10.0 t/ha, followed by DS and NT (6.0 t/ha and 4.4 t/ha, respectively). The DS, NT, and RT enhanced soil available N and K with the best effect for NT, but DS reduced soil total and available P. The conservation tillage significantly increased the C:N, C:P, C:K, and N:P ratios, indicating it sustained soil balanced stoichiometry. Correlation analysis indicated crop yield was closely related to soil C:N, C:P, C:K, and N:P. The structural equation model revealed that the C, N, and P affected C:N and C:P ratios, thus improving crop yield under long-term conservation tillage. In summary, long-term conservation tillage improves soil stoichiometry balance and thus crop yields with great C sequestration potential to achieve sustainable agricultural management in rain-fed farmland.

Keywords: C sequestration; No-tillage, straw mulching; Ploughing; Ridge planting; Soil nutrients; Sub-soiling.