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How Does Tillage Accelerate Soil Production and Enhance Soil Organic Carbon Stocks in Mudstone and Shale Outcrop Regions?

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Advances in Understanding Soil Degradation

Part of the book series: Innovations in Landscape Research ((ILR))

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Abstract

In the academic community, tillage has become a subject of research in environmental change as it is closely associated with the global stocks of soil carbon, the largest terrestrial organic carbon pool. However, tillage’s impacts on the soil mass are unknown and the role of tillage in the global carbon cycle is intensely debated worldwide. It is still not known how soil eroded by prior natural processes and human activities is offset by tillage, or how soil production is controlled by tillage. Using a physical tracer method, the tillage-induced flux and translocation rate of rock fragments were estimated on the Regosol hillside of the Sichuan Basin, China, where there are extensive mudstone and shale outcrops. There, we found that tillage in the fields artificially accelerates soil production by crushing bedrock to increase the soil matrix. Tilling into bedrock takes place as the soil mass is the minimum required for basic grain production. Tillage caused bedrock fragmentation and accelerated soil production/formation by increasing the soil matrix: the resultant rock fragments are incorporated into the soil layers in the Regosol areas with mudstone and shale outcrops. Our results indicate that tillage and associated tillage erosion can play a positive role in soil production, agricultural productivity, and carbon sequestration in the sloped landscapes of Sichuan, China.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge the financial support for this study provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41877069 and 41701324), and the Major Science and Technology Special Project of Sichuan Province (Grant 2018SZDZX0034).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Water Conservancy, Chengdu, 610041, China

    Jianhui Zhang, Yong Wang, Jiadong Dai & Haichao Xu

  2. College of Water Conservancy and Hydropower Engineering, Sichuan Agricultural University, Ya’an, 625014, China

    Yong Wang

Authors
  1. Jianhui Zhang
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  2. Yong Wang
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  3. Jiadong Dai
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  4. Haichao Xu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jianhui Zhang .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pedology, Institute of Soil Science, Belgrade, Serbia

    Elmira Saljnikov

  2. Leibniz Center Agricultural Landscape Research, Müncheberg, Brandenburg, Germany

    Lothar Mueller

  3. Department of Soil Science and Agrochemistry, Saint-Petersburg State Agrarian University, St. Petersburg, Russia

    Anton Lavrishchev

  4. Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research, Müncheberg, Brandenburg, Germany

    Frank Eulenstein

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Zhang, J., Wang, Y., Dai, J., Xu, H. (2022). How Does Tillage Accelerate Soil Production and Enhance Soil Organic Carbon Stocks in Mudstone and Shale Outcrop Regions?. In: Saljnikov, E., Mueller, L., Lavrishchev, A., Eulenstein, F. (eds) Advances in Understanding Soil Degradation. Innovations in Landscape Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85682-3_10

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