Quantitative evaluation and mechanism analysis of soil chemical factors affecting rice yield in saline-sodic paddy fields

Baishun Liu; Lihua Huang; Xiaotong Jiang; Ying Liu; Guangzhi Huang; Can Yang; Yanping Liang; Jinghui Cai; Ge Zhu; Qianqian Kong

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.172584

Quantitative evaluation and mechanism analysis of soil chemical factors affecting rice yield in saline-sodic paddy fields

Sci Total Environ. 2024 Jun 15:929:172584. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.172584. Epub 2024 Apr 18.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Black Soils Conservation and Utilization, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), 4888 Shengbei Street, Changchun 130102, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Black Soils Conservation and Utilization, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), 4888 Shengbei Street, Changchun 130102, China; Jilin Da'an National Field Observation and Research Station of Agroecosystem, Da'an, Jilin 131317, China. Electronic address: huanglihua@iga.ac.cn.
³ State Key Laboratory of Black Soils Conservation and Utilization, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), 4888 Shengbei Street, Changchun 130102, China.
⁴ School of Management Science and Information Engineering, Jilin University of Finance and Economics, 3699 Jingyue Street, Changchun 130117, China.

PMID: 38641101
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.172584

Abstract

Salinization and sodication have become an important abiotic stress affecting soil fertility and crop production in the western of the Songnen Plain in Northeast China. And rice cultivation is considered as one of the most effective biological methods to reclaim saline-sodic soils and ensure food security. However, it is difficult to select the optimal measures to regulate rice growth for increasing yield, because the independent and comprehensive influences of the soil limitation factors on rice yield are not quantitatively evaluated. In this study, the hierarchical partitioning (HP) and the structural equation model (SEM) were used to quantitatively evaluate the influences of salinization parameters, salt ion concentrations and soil nutrients to identify the dominant limitation factors and obstacle mechanism for rice yield. The results showed that soil pH was the key index in salinization parameters, [CO₃^2- + HCO₃^-] was the key index in salt ion concentrations and available nitrogen (AN) was the key index in soil nutrients to impact rice yield, which independent influences reached 53.7 %, 45.4 % (negative) and 53.2 % (positive), respectively. Soil pH was determined by [CO₃^2- + HCO₃^-], and the negative effect of alkali stress on rice yield mainly caused by [CO₃^2- + HCO₃^-] was greater than that of salt stress mainly caused by [Na⁺] in saline-sodic paddy fields. Among the soil chemical factors, soil pH and AN were the most important explanatory variables of rice yield in saline-sodic paddy fields, which standardized total effects were - 0.32 and 0.40, respectively. Furthermore, the AN showed a more significant negative correlation with soil pH and a higher yield-increasing potential in severe saline-sodic soils (9 ≤ pH < 10) than that in moderate saline-sodic soils (8 ≤ pH < 9). Therefore, decreasing [CO₃^2- + HCO₃^-] and increasing the content of AN are key to improve rice yield in saline-sodic paddy fields.

Keywords: Quantitative evaluation; Rice cultivation; Saline-sodic soil; Soil limitation factors; Yields.