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Fertilizer Types Affect Soil Organic Carbon Content and Crop Production: A Meta-analysis

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Abstract

The mechanism of the effects of different fertilizer types on soil organic carbon (SOC) content and crop yield under different climate conditions is still unclear. We conducted a meta-analysis to evaluate the impacts of different fertilizer types (CK, no fertilizer; F, inorganic fertilizer; S, organic fertilizer; and FS, inorganic combined with organic fertilizer) on SOC content and crop yield in China. Overall, compared with the CK treatment, fertilizer significantly (p < 0.05) increased the SOC content in the 0–20 cm soil depth by 21.5%. In addition, the fertilizer treatments significantly increased the SOC content regardless of the air temperature, and the magnitude of the increase in the SOC content under the fertilizer treatments was lowest at a mean annual temperature of < 10 °C, which was significantly less than that at 10–15 °C. Moreover, fertilizer, especially the FS treatment, significantly improved the crop yield by 119.7%. The magnitude of the increase in crop yield was highest for the experimental duration of 5–15 years under the F and S treatments. Our results suggest that the long-term application of inorganic combined with organic fertilizer may be an appropriate fertilizer treatment for the development of sustainable agriculture by improving SOC content and crop production.

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Acknowledgements

The author gratefully acknowledges the editors and two anonymous reviewers for their great comments on the improvement of the manuscript. The author also wants to thank the scientific research fund for Ph.D. from the Ningxia University (Fund Number: ZR1724).

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  1. College of Agronomy, Ningxia University, Yinchuan, 750000, Ningxia, China

    Xingli Lu

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Lu, X. Fertilizer Types Affect Soil Organic Carbon Content and Crop Production: A Meta-analysis. Agric Res 9, 94–101 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40003-019-00410-0

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