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Effect of tillage practices on soil CO2 emissions, microbial C-fixation, and C-degradation functional gene abundance in Northeast China

  • Soils, Sec 5 • Soil and Landscape Ecology • Research Article
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Abstract

Purpose

Tillage practices affect greenhouse gases’ exchange from soil to atmosphere and thereby change global soil carbon (C) cycle. However, there is limited understanding on how tillage practices affect CO2 production by altering C-cycling functional gene composition of the soil microbes.

Methods

A long-term field tillage experiment was initiated in 2012 and consisted of no-tillage (NT) and moldboard plowing (MP) both with residue returned, and conventional tillage (CT) with residue removed. In 2020, we sampled the soil and quantified soil physicochemical properties, CO2 emissions, and the microbial C-cycling functional genes which were determined by the quantitative microbial element cycling (QMEC) method.

Results

The results showed that NT and MP significantly increased CO2 accumulative emissions compared with CT, but CO2 accumulative emissions were not markedly different between NT and MP. Both NT and MP greatly increased soil C-cycling functional genes at the depth of 0–20 cm, while MP decreased C-cycling functional genes, dissolved organic carbon (DOC), and microbial biomass carbon (MBC) concentrations, resulting in a reduction of C allocation at the soil 20–30 cm depth. Furthermore, DOC and NH4+-N concentrations were the most important environmental factors for changing microbial function potential. And the ratio of absolute abundance C degradation genes and C fixation genes were both significantly related to CO2 accumulative emissions (R2 = 0.37, P < 0.05), suggesting that NT may have great soil potential to accumulate C.

Conclusion

These findings suggest that no-tillage will be an appropriate strategy to promote the potential of soil C cycle by altering composition and functionality of soil microbial communities.

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Funding

This research was supported by the Science and Technology Project for Black Soil Granary (XDA28080200), Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDA2307050103), National Natural Science Foundation of China (41877095 and 41771206), and Innovation Leadership and Team Program in Sciences and Technologies for Young and Middle-aged Scientists of Jilin Province (20200301022RQ).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Mollisols Agroecology, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130102, China

    Yan Gao, Aizhen Liang, Yan Zhang, Dandan Huang, Yang Zhang, Yang Wang, Xuewen Chen & Shixiu Zhang

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Yan Gao, Aizhen Liang, Yan Zhang, Yang Zhang & Xuewen Chen

  3. Ottawa Research and Development Center, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Ottawa, K1A0C6, Canada

    Neil McLaughlin

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  1. Yan Gao
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  2. Aizhen Liang
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  3. Yan Zhang
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Correspondence to Aizhen Liang.

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Gao, Y., Liang, A., Zhang, Y. et al. Effect of tillage practices on soil CO2 emissions, microbial C-fixation, and C-degradation functional gene abundance in Northeast China. J Soils Sediments 23, 446–458 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-022-03320-x

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