Abstract
Background and aims
Conservation tillage enhances soil aggregate function, —a key factor for promoting soil nutrient cycling and plant growth. However, there is a limited understanding of how tillage practices impact soil nutrients, enzymes and microbes distribution among different-sized aggregates, and their potential subsequent effects on other soil functions and processes.
Methods
We conducted a long-term experiment involving maize (Zea mays L.) cultivation in a semiarid farming region in Northwest China. Four tillages were implemented: no-tillage, minimal tillage, fold-tillage, and sub-tillage. Soil aggregates were categorized based on size: <0.25 mm (‘micro’), 0.25–2 mm (‘small’), and > 2 mm (‘macro’). We measured the nutrient contents, enzyme activity, enzymatic stoichiometry, and soil microbial community structure with each fraction, and assessed crop productivity.
Results
The no-tillage treatment increased soil C content, microbial biomass, and P and N availability within micro-aggregates and bulk soil. It also enhanced enzymatic activity related to C and P acquisition and the C: N enzymatic ratio but decreased the N: P enzymatic ratio in micro-aggregates. Notably, no-tillage promoted straw and root biomass and crop yield compared to conventional tillage. Microbial community structure differed under the different tillage regimes and among aggregate size fractions, particularly under conventional tillage, but the tillage system did not affect alpha diversity.
Conclusions
Our results highlight that long-term conservation tillage positively influenced soil aggregates by increasing carbon content and enzyme activity, thereby, reshaping the soil microbial community composition within aggregate size fractions in semiarid agroecosystems.
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Data Availability
The datasets that support this study will be shared upon reasonable request to the corresponding author.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported financially by the National Natural Sciences Foundation of China (NO. 41867013 and NO. 31960625), Gansu Province Sciences Foundation (NO. 20JR5RA074), and the Doctoral Scientific Research Funds (No. 19E056). We also thank the anonymous reviewers for providing critical comments and suggestions that improved the manuscript.
Funding
Junqiang Wang reports financial support was provided by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41867013). Yanjie Gu reports financial support, statistical analysis, and writing assistance were provided by National Natural Science Foundation of China (NO. 31960625). Yanfang Zhou reports financial support was provided by Gansu Provincial Natural Science Foundation (NO. 20JR5RA074). Junqiang Wang reports financial support was provided by China West Normal University of Doctoral Scientific Research Start-up Foundation (No. 19E056).
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Chenglong Han: Methodology, Investigation, Writing—original draft. Weidi Zhou: Experimentation, Investigation, Data curation. Yanjie Gu: Methodology, Review. Junqiang Wang: Conceptualization, Review, Project administration. Yanfang Zhou: Investigation, Review. Yunyin Xue: Experimentation. Zhiguo Shi: Review, Supervision. Kadambot H.M. Siddique: Review, Editing.
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Han, C., Zhou, W., Gu, Y. et al. Effects of tillage regime on soil aggregate-associated carbon, enzyme activity, and microbial community structure in a semiarid agroecosystem. Plant Soil 498, 543–559 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-023-06453-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-023-06453-1