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Responses of soil nitrogen and carbon mineralization rates to fertilization and crop rotation

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

Purpose

The mineralization rate of soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) is important for determining soil C storage as well as nutrient supply and retention. Soil C and N decomposition processes are microbially driven and are therefore expected to be influenced by the balance between soil resource availability and microbial resource demand. However, we lack understanding of how the microbial uptake and mineralization of soil C and N is affected by different levels of fertilization and crop rotation patterns in agricultural systems.

Materials and methods

Soils from a field experiment including five levels of N fertilization (0 kg N ha−1 (control, 0), 84 kg N ha−1 (low N application), 95 kg N ha−1 (moderate N application), 105 kg N ha−1 (conventional N application) and 115.5 kg N ha−1 (high N application)) were used to determine soil C and N mineralization and retention, in either a tobacco plantation either under tobacco monoculture or tobacco-maize rotation.

Results and discussion

Nitrogen fertilizer application increased net N mineralization (40–307%), net nitrification (150–400%), microbial NUE (131–373%) and CUE (16–57%) but decreased respiration (11–42%) in monoculture system, due to the significant higher DOC concentration and microbial C limitation. However, N fertilizer application increased net N mineralization (67–400%), net nitrification (50–544%), and microbial NUE (84–438%) but reduced microbial respiration (56–71%) and CUE (8–39%) in rotation system, due to the lower microbial activity caused by significant higher microbial C and N limitation and poorer C quality. Therefore, fertilization aggravated microbial resource limitation and lowered quality indicated by elemental stoichiometry in rotation system, leading to decoupling of microbial respiration and metabolism.

Conclusions

Together, our results suggest that elemental stoichiometry and enzyme activities can be used to predict soil C and N cycling under different agricultural management practices.

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Funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (42207262), grants from the Yunnan Science and Technology key research project (202001AU070006), Yunnan Academy of Tobacco Agricultural Sciences (2019530000241011, 2019530000241024).

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Author notes

  1. Yonglei Jiang and Liang Xiao contributed equally to the work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Yunnan Academy of Tobacco Agricultural Sciences, Kunming, 650021, China

    Yonglei Jiang, Jiahong Liu, Yi Chen & Xiaopeng Deng

  2. School of Geographic Information and Tourism, Chuzhou University, Chuzhou, 239000, China

    Liang Xiao

  3. Guangxi Key Laboratory of Karst Ecological Processes and Services, Huanjiang Observation and Research Station for Karst Ecosystems, Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Huanjiang, 547100, China

    Pengpeng Duan & Xinyi Yang

  4. Key Laboratory of Agro–Ecological Processes in Subtropical Region, Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changsha, 410125, China

    Pengpeng Duan & Xinyi Yang

  5. Key Laboratory of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1799 Jimei Road, Xiamen, China

    Jian Li

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  1. Yonglei Jiang
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  2. Liang Xiao
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  4. Yi Chen
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  5. Xiaopeng Deng
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. YJ and LX: conceptualization, methodology, and writing—original draft; PD: writing—review and editing; JL, YC, and XD: investigation, methodology, review and editing; YJ, XY, and JL: methodology, resources, and funding acquisition

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Correspondence to Xinyi Yang or Jian Li.

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Jiang, Y., Xiao, L., Liu, J. et al. Responses of soil nitrogen and carbon mineralization rates to fertilization and crop rotation. J Soils Sediments 24, 1289–1301 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-023-03694-6

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