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Differences in fertilization impacts on organic carbon content and stability in a paddy and an upland soil in subtropical China

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Abstract

Aims

The stability of soil organic carbon (SOC) is of great importance in controlling long-term carbon (C) sequestration and feedbacks of soil C pools to climate change. It has been well documented that rice cropping and organic amendments could enhance SOC stocks, while the stability of the sequestered C has not been well understood yet. The objective of this study was to examine the difference in SOC content and stability between a paddy and an upland field under long-term fertilization and to explore the potential link between SOC chemical and biological stability.

Methods

Soils were collected from two adjacent long-term paddy (annually double-rice cropping) and upland (annually double-corn cropping) experiments with the same soil parent material, where different fertilization regimes were initiated in 1981 and 1986, respectively. The chemical and biological stability of SOC were measured by acid hydrolysis and aerobic incubations, respectively.

Results

The C concentration was significantly higher in the paddy soil than in the upland soil, regardless of fertilization regimes. As compared to the initial level, long-term rice cropping without any fertilization (CK) significantly enhanced SOC concentration, whereas corn cropping led to a slight decline. Manure amendments combined with inorganic NPK fertilizers (NPKM) significantly increased SOC content relative to the inorganic NPK application alone treatment (NPK) in both the upland and paddy fields. The paddy soil had significantly greater cumulative C released per gram of soil C (i.e., the biological stability of SOC) than the upland soil. Cumulative C released per gram of soil C was significantly higher in NPKM than in NPK in both the paddy and upland soils, whereas no significant difference was observed between the CK and NPK treatments. Acid hydrolysis could reveal the difference in C stability between the paddy and upland soils, but could not characterize the effect of fertilization.

Conclusions

Rice cropping facilitates SOC accumulation relative to upland cropping, whereas the inherent SOC stability is lower under the former than the latter in the site. The lower SOC turnover in the paddy than in the upland is mainly due to anaerobic conditions. Organic amendments significantly enhance SOC, but reduce its stability in both the paddy and upland fields. The sensitivity of acid hydrolysis is relatively low in determining SOC stability.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31460336), the Special Fund for Agro-scientific Research in the Public Interest of China (201503122, 201503118), the Foundation of Jiangxi Province (20151BBF60082), and the Innovation Program of CAAS. We thank the editor and the reviewers for their constructive comments on the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Landscape and Art (College of Forestry), Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang, 330045, People’s Republic of China

    Yanni Sun

  2. Jiangxi Key Laboratory of Crop Physiology, Ecology and Genetic Breeding, Ministry of Education, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang, 330045, People’s Republic of China

    Shan Huang

  3. Jiangxi Institute of Red Soil, Jinxian, 331700, People’s Republic of China

    Xichu Yu

  4. Ministry of Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences/Key Laboratory of Crop Physiology & Ecology, Institute of Crop Sciences, Beijing, 100081, People’s Republic of China

    Weijian Zhang

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  1. Yanni Sun
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  2. Shan Huang
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Correspondence to Weijian Zhang.

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Responsible Editor: Ingrid Koegel-Knabner.

Appendix

Appendix

Fig. 6
figure 6

The rates of CO2 emission under different fertilization regimes during the incubation. The unfertilized control (CK), inorganic N, P, and K fertilizers (NPK), and inorganic N, P, and K fertilizers plus organic manure (NPKM) treatments were denoted by UCK, UNPK, and UNPKM for the upland and PCK, PNPK, and PNPKM for the paddy, respectively. Error bars indicate SE

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Sun, Y., Huang, S., Yu, X. et al. Differences in fertilization impacts on organic carbon content and stability in a paddy and an upland soil in subtropical China. Plant Soil 397, 189–200 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-015-2611-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-015-2611-5

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