Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Ridge-furrow with film mulching practice ameliorates soil microbial metabolic activity and carbon utilization in rhizosphere soil of rapeseed (Brassica napus L.)

  • Soils, Sec 1 • Soil Organic Matter Dynamics and Nutrient Cycling • Research Article
  • Published:
Journal of Soils and Sediments Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

The farming practices of ridge-furrow with film mulching (RFFM) have been extensively reported as a valuable technique for improving crop productivity and enhancing water-use efficiency. However, research on the high-yield mechanism of RFFM measures under drought stress from the perspective of microbial diversity has been scared.

Materials and methods

Field experiments were conducted to analyze the effects of conventional flat planting (FP), no film mulching (NR), white polyethylene film mulching (WR), black polyethylene film mulching (BR), and biodegradable film mulching (BDR) with 40 and 80 cm furrow width levels on soil temperature, soil water storage (SWS), microbial carbon utilization, and yield of winter oilseed rape.

Results and discussion

The RFFM significantly increased the SWS as well as rapeseed yield and yield components. However, these treatments did not cause obvious differences in soil temperature. A relative high value of average color change rate (AWCD) was observed during the incubation time of 24–216 h, and it reached the peak value at 240 h. The AWCD in the furrow with 80 cm width was greater than that of 40 cm. The RFFM also could improve the utilization intensities of soil microorganism on the carbon sources of carbohydrates, amino acids, and miscellaneous in rapeseed rhizosphere. This result was consistent with that of the principal component analysis. The Shannon–Wiener diversity index, Simpson’s diversity index, and Shannon–Wiener evenness in BDR40, BR40, and BR80 were significantly higher than other treatments, respectively. In addition, correlation analysis results suggested that the indicator of affecting the diversity of carbon source was mainly due to the water storage capacity.

Conclusions

The methods of film mulching have a remarkable effect on microbial diversity. The yield of BR and BDR were significantly higher than other treatments. Compared with FP, RFFM increased rapeseed yield by 9.61–86.10%. In the year of less rainfall, production has decreased in comparison with the first season, while BDR80 guarantees continuous high yield and substantially promoted carbon utilization and soil microbial diversity. Soil microbial diversity is positively correlated with soil water content, which is beneficial to increase production. Wider furrow (80 cm) is recommended a sustainable high-yield method due to convenient labor in the region in Southwest China.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Bandopadhyay S, Martin-Closas L, Pelacho AM, DeBruyn JM (2018) Biodegradable plastic mulch films: impacts on soil microbial communities and ecosystem functions. Front Microbiol 9:819

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • CRGCST (Cooperative Research Group on Chinese Soil Taxonomy) (2001) Chinese soil taxonomy. Science Press, Beijing, pp 166–167

    Google Scholar 

  • Cuello JP, Hwang HY, Gutierrez J, Kim SY, Kim PJ (2015) Impact of plastic film mulching on increasing greenhouse gas emissions in temperate upland soil during maize cultivation. Appl Soil Ecol 91:48–57

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davidson EA, Janssens IA (2006) Temperature sensitivity of soil carbon decomposition and feedbacks to climate change. Nature 440:165–173

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • de Moraes Sá JC, Potma Gonçalves DR, Ferreira LA, Mishra U, Inagaki TM, Ferreira Furlan FJ, Moro RS, Floriani N, Briedis C, de Oliveira Ferreira A (2018) Soil carbon fractions and biological activity based indices can be used to study the impact of land management and ecological successions. Ecol Indic 84:96–105

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Dong QG, Yang Y, Yu K, Feng H (2018) Effects of straw mulching and plastic film mulching on improving soil organic carbon and nitrogen fractions, crop yield and water use efficiency in the Loess Plateau, China. Agric Water Manag 201:133–143

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fierer N (2017) Embracing the unknown: disentangling the complexities of the soil microbiome. Nat Rev Microbiol 15:579–590

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gao Y, Xie Y, Jiang H, Wu B, Niu J (2014) Soil water status and root distribution across the rooting zone in maize with plastic film mulching. Field Crop Res 156:40–47

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garland JL, Mills AL (1991) Classification and characterization of heterotrophic microbial communities on the basis of patterns of community-level sole-carbon-source utilization. Appl Environ Microbiol 57:2351–2359

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gu X, Li Y, Du Y (2016) Continuous ridges with film mulching improve soil water content, root growth, seed yield and water use efficiency of winter oilseed rape. Ind Crop Prod 85:139–148

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gu X, Li Y, Du Y (2017) Biodegradable film mulching improves soil temperature, moisture and seed yield of winter oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.). Soil Tillage Res 171:42–50

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gu X, Li Y, Du Y (2018) Effects of ridge-furrow film mulching and nitrogen fertilization on growth, seed yield and water productivity of winter oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.) in Northwestern China. Agric Water Manag 200:60–70

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huang Z, Xu Z, Chen C (2008) Effect of mulching on labile soil organic matter pools, microbial community functional diversity and nitrogen transformations in two hardwood plantations of subtropical Australia. Appl Soil Ecol 40:229–239

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hunter PR, Gaston MA (1988) Numerical index of the discriminatory ability of typing systems: an application of Simpson's index of diversity. J Clin Microbiol 26:2465–2466

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Jin X, An T, Gall AR, Li S, Filley T, Wang J (2018) Enhanced conversion of newly-added maize straw to soil microbial biomass C under plastic film mulching and organic manure management. Geoderma 313:154–162

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Keane BJ, Ineson P, Vallack HW, Blei E, Bentley M, Howarth S, McNamara NP, Rowe RL, Williams M, Toet S (2018) Greenhouse gas emissions from the energy crop oilseed rape (Brassica napus): the role of photosynthetically active radiation in diurnal N2O flux variation. GCB Bioenergy 10:306–319

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Keylock CJ (2005) Simpson diversity and the Shannon-Wiener index as special cases of a generalized entropy. Oikos 109:203–207

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li F, Song Q, Jjemba PK, Shi Y (2004) Dynamics of soil microbial biomass C and soil fertility in cropland mulched with plastic film in a semiarid agro-ecosystem. Soil Biol Biochem 36:1893–1902

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Li W, Wen X, Han J, Liu Y, Wu W, Liao Y (2017) Optimum ridge-to-furrow ratio in ridge-furrow mulching systems for improving water conservation in maize (Zea may L.) production. Environ Sci Pollut Res 24:23168–23179

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lin W, Liu W, Xue Q (2016) Spring maize yield, soil water use, and water use efficiency under plastic film and straw mulches in the Loess Plateau. Sci Rep 6:38995

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Liu G, Zuo Y, Zhang Q, Yang L, Zhao E, Liang L, Tong YA (2018) Ridge-furrow with plastic film and straw mulch increase water availability and wheat production on the Loess Plateau. Sci Rep 8:6503

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Martínez-García LB, Korthals G, Brussaard L, Jørgensen HB, De Deyn GB (2018) Organic management and cover crop species steer soil microbial community structure and functionality along with soil organic matter properties. Agric Ecosyst Environ 263:7–17

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mo F, Wang J, Xiong Y, Nguluu SN, Li F (2016) Ridge-furrow mulching system in semiarid Kenya: a promising solution to improve soil water availability and maize productivity. Eur J Agron 80:124–136

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mo F, Wang J, Li F, Nguluu SN, Ren H, Zhou H, Zhang J, Kariuki CW, Gicheru P, Kavagi L, Cheruiyot WK, Xiong Y (2017) Yield-phenology relations and water use efficiency of maize (Zea mays L.) in ridge-furrow mulching system in semiarid east African Plateau. Sci Rep 7:3260

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Moreno MM, Moreno A (2008) Effect of different biodegradable and polyethylene mulches on soil properties and production in a tomato crop. Sci Hortic 116:256–263

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Muñoz K, Buchmann C, Meyer M, Schmidt-Heydt M, Steinmetz Z, Diehl D, Thiele-Bruhn S, Schaumann GE (2017) Physicochemical and microbial soil quality indicators as affected by the agricultural management system in strawberry cultivation using straw or black polyethylene mulching. Appl Soil Ecol 113:36–44

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nelson DW, Sommers LE (1996) Total carbon, organic carbon, and organic matter: laboratory methods. In: Sparks DL et al (eds) Methods of soil analysis. Part 3, SSSA Book Ser. No. 5. ASA/SSSA, Madison, Wisconsin pp 961–1010

  • Pascual-Seva N, San Bautista A, López-Galarza S, Maroto JV, Pascual B (2018) Influence of different drip irrigation strategies on irrigation water use efficiency on chufa (Cyperus esculentus L. var. sativus Boeck.) crop. Agric Water Manag 208:406–413

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Qin S, Zhang J, Dai H, Wang D, Li D (2014) Effect of ridge-furrow and plastic-mulching planting patterns on yield formation and water movement of potato in a semi-arid area. Agric Water Manag 131:87–94

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Qin X, Li Y, Han Y, Hu Y, Li Y, Wen X, Liao Y, Siddique KHM (2018) Ridge-furrow mulching with black plastic film improves maize yield more than white plastic film in dry areas with adequate accumulated temperature. Agric For Meteorol 262:206–214

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ramakrishna A, Tam HM, Wani SP, Long TD (2006) Effect of mulch on soil temperature, moisture, weed infestation and yield of groundnut in northern Vietnam. Field Crop Res 95:115–125

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rathore R, Dowling DN, Forristal PD, Spink J, Cotter PD, Bulgarelli D, Germaine KJ (2017) Crop establishment practices are a driver of the plant microbiota in winter oilseed rape (Brassica napus). Front Microbiol 8:1489

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shen Y, Chen Y, Li S (2016) Microbial functional diversity, biomass and activity as affected by soil surface mulching in a semiarid farmland. PLoS One 11:e159144

    Google Scholar 

  • Soong JL, Marañon-Jimenez S, Cotrufo MF, Boeckx P, Bodé S, Guenet B, Peñuelas J, Richter A, Stahl C, Verbruggen E, Janssens IA (2018) Soil microbial CNP and respiration responses to organic matter and nutrient additions: evidence from a tropical soil incubation. Soil Biol Biochem 122:141–149

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Thankamani CK, Kandiannan K, Hamza S, Saji KV (2016) Effect of mulches on weed suppression and yield of ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe). Sci Hortic 207:125–130

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vance ED, Brookes PC, Jenkinson DS (1987) An extraction method for measuring soil microbial biomass C. Soil Biol Biochem 19:703–707

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wang Y, Xie Z, Malhi SS, Vera CL, Zhang Y, Wang J (2009) Effects of rainfall harvesting and mulching technologies on water use efficiency and crop yield in the semi-arid Loess Plateau, China. Agric Water Manag 96:374–382

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang J, Lv S, Zhang M, Chen G, Zhu T, Zhang S, Teng Y, Christie P, Luo Y (2016a) Effects of plastic film residues on occurrence of phthalates and microbial activity in soils. Chemosphere 151:171–177

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wang YP, Li XG, Fu T, Wang L, Turner NC, Siddique KHM, Li F (2016b) Multi-site assessment of the effects of plastic-film mulch on the soil organic carbon balance in semiarid areas of China. Agric For Meteorol 228-229:42–51

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wu J, Xiao K, Zhao C, Yu A, Feng F, Li L, Chai Q (2018) Ridge-furrow cropping of maize reduces soil carbon emissions and enhances carbon use efficiency. Agric Ecosyst Environ 256:153–162

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yadav GS, Das A, Lal R, Babu S, Meena RS, Patil SB, Saha P, Datta M (2018) Conservation tillage and mulching effects on the adaptive capacity of direct-seeded upland rice (Oryza sativa L.) to alleviate weed and moisture stresses in the North Eastern Himalayan Region of India. Arch Agron Soil Sci 64:1254–1267

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yu Y, Tao H, Yao H, Zhao C (2018) Assessment of the effect of plastic mulching on soil respiration in the arid agricultural region of China under future climate scenarios. Agric For Meteorol 256-257:1–9

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang GS, Chan KY, Li GD, Huang GB (2008) Effect of straw and plastic film management under contrasting tillage practices on the physical properties of an erodible loess soil. Soil Tillage Res 98:113–119

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang F, Li M, Zhang W, Li F, Qi J (2017a) Ridge-furrow mulched with plastic film increases little in carbon dioxide efflux but much significant in biomass in a semiarid rainfed farming system. Agric For Meteorol 244-245:33–41

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang F, Zhang W, Li M, Zhang Y, Li F, Li C (2017b) Is crop biomass and soil carbon storage sustainable with long-term application of full plastic film mulching under future climate change? Agric Syst 150:67–77

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang Y, Han H, Zhang D, Li J, Gong X, Feng B, Xue Z, Yang P (2017c) Effects of ridging and mulching combined practices on proso millet growth and yield in semi-arid regions of China. Field Crop Res 213:65–74

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang Z, Liang S, Wang J, Zhang X, Mahamood M, Yu J, Zhang X, Liang A, Liang W (2018) Tillage and crop succession effects on soil microbial metabolic activity and carbon utilization in a clay loam soil. Eur J Soil Biol 88:97–104

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Zhao H, Wang R, Ma B, Xiong Y, Qiang S, Wang C, Liu C, Li F (2014) Ridge-furrow with full plastic film mulching improves water use efficiency and tuber yields of potato in a semiarid rainfed ecosystem. Field Crop Res 161:137–148

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhou L, Jin S, Liu C, Xiong Y, Si J, Li X, Gan Y, Li F (2012) Ridge-furrow and plastic-mulching tillage enhance maize-soil interactions: opportunities and challenges in a semiarid agroecosystem. Field Crop Res 126:181–188

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the project of the Special Fund for Agro-scientific Research in the Public Interest (No. 201503127) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31271673, No. 31700364, No. 31871583). The authors extremely thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and Dr. Mohsin Tanveer from School of Land and Food, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia, for improving the language of this manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Agronomy and Biotechnology, Southwest University/Key Laboratory of Eco-environments in Three Gorges Reservoir Region, Ministry of Education/Engineering Research Center of South Upland Agriculture, Ministry of Education, Chongqing, 400716, China

    Kangping Zhang, Yi Xing, Ramadan Shemi, Meichun Duan, Longchang Wang & Xiaoyu Xie

  2. College of Environmental Science, Sichuan Agricultural University, Ya’an, 611130, Wenjiang, China

    Guiyin Wang

  3. Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt

    Ramadan Shemi

Authors
  1. Kangping Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Yi Xing
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Guiyin Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Ramadan Shemi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Meichun Duan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Longchang Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Xiaoyu Xie
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Longchang Wang or Xiaoyu Xie.

Additional information

Responsible editor: Weixin Ding

Publisher’s note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Electronic supplementary material

ESM 1

(DOC 1495 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Zhang, K., Xing, Y., Wang, G. et al. Ridge-furrow with film mulching practice ameliorates soil microbial metabolic activity and carbon utilization in rhizosphere soil of rapeseed (Brassica napus L.). J Soils Sediments 19, 2764–2776 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-019-02243-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-019-02243-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation