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Linking soil aggregation to organic matter chemistry in a Calcic Cambisol: evidence from a 33-year field experiment

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Abstract

Soil aggregation contributes to soil organic C (SOC) sequestration, but it is still unclear how the organic functional groups and microbial necromass operate to influence soil aggregation. This issue was explored after 33 years of manure (i.e. farmyard manure at agronomic and elevated rates) and chemical fertilizer application in a Calcic Cambisol on the Loess Plateau. The application of manure increased SOC and the mass proportion of macroaggregates by 1.1- to 1.8-fold and 1.5- to 2.3-fold, respectively, compared with the unfertilized control. The aliphaticity, aromaticity and hydrophobicity indices of SOC as characterized by 13C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy were higher in the manure-amended soils than in the chemical fertilizer-treated soils. The application of manure increased the microbial necromass by 1.3- to 2.6-fold compared with the control. Fungal necromass was enriched in the macroaggregates, while bacterial necromass was enriched in the microaggregates. Compared with the control, manure application increased (P < 0.05) the relative contribution of fungal necromass to SOC, which was positively correlated with the chemical recalcitrance of the SOC (i.e. aliphaticity, aromaticity and hydrophobicity) (P < 0.05). Furthermore, the chemical recalcitrance and relative contribution of microbial necromass, particularly that of fungal necromass, in the bulk soil (P < 0.05) and soil aggregates (P < 0.01) were positively correlated with the mass proportion of macroaggregates. Therefore, the accumulation of recalcitrant C components and fungal necromass contributes to soil aggregation in the Calcic Cambisols of the Loess Plateau.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the editor-in-chief (Paolo Nannipieri) and the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments.

Funding

This work was supported by the State Key Laboratory of Sustainable Dryland Agriculture (in preparation), Shanxi Agricultural University (grant no. 202001-8 and 202105D121008), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 42277345 and 41907083) and the Distinguished and Excellent Young Scholar Cultivation Project of Shanxi Agricultural University (2022YQPYGC06).

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  1. State Key Laboratory of Sustainable Dryland Agriculture (in preparation), College of Resources and Environment, Shanxi Agricultural University, Taiyuan, 030031, China

    Xiaolei Huang, Zhixin Jia, Jinsong Wang & Xiaoyan Jiao

  2. State Key Laboratory of Sustainable Dryland Agriculture (in preparation), Shanxi Institute of Organic Dryland Farming, Shanxi Agricultural University, Taiyuan, 030031, China

    Xuefang Huang & Juanling Wang

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  1. Xiaolei Huang
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Correspondence to Xiaoyan Jiao.

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Fig. S1

Annual mean crop yields as affected by different long-term (33 years) fertilization treatments from 1988 to 2020. The solid lines and circles, the lower and upper limits and bars outside the boxes represent median and mean values, 25th and 75th, 10th and 90th percentile yield values, respectively, while black squares above and below boxes represent, respectively, the < 10th and > 90th percentiles of data. Treatments CT, N, NP, M, NM, NPM, NDM and NPDM represent no fertilizer control, N fertilizer, N and P fertilizers, farmyard manure at an agronomic rate, N plus manure, NP plus manure, N plus double amounts of manure and NP plus double amounts of manure, respectively. Different letters indicate significant differences between treatments at P < 0.05 according to Duncan's multiple range test. (PNG 38 kb)

High Resolution Image (TIF 341 kb)

Fig. S2

Solid-state CPMAS 13C NMR spectroscopy of the farmyard manure. (PNG 15 kb)

High Resolution Image (TIF 127 kb)

Fig. S3

Effects of different long-term (33 years) fertilization treatments on the contents of glucosamine (a), muramic acid (b) and the ratio of glucosamine to muramic acid (c) in the bulk soil and soil aggregates. Treatments CT, N, NP, M, NM, NPM, NDM and NPDM represent no fertilizer control, N fertilizer, N and P fertilizers, farmyard manure at an agronomic rate, N plus manure, NP plus manure, N plus double amounts of manure and NP plus double amounts of manure, respectively. Error bars are standard errors of means (n = 3). Different capital and lowercase letters indicate significant differences between aggregate fractions within a fertilizer treatment and between fertilizer treatments within an aggregate fraction, respectively, at P < 0.05 according to Duncan's multiple range test. (PNG 81 kb)

High Resolution Image (TIF 837 kb)

Fig. S4

Effects of different long-term (33 years) fertilization treatments on the ratio of fungal necromass to bacterial necromass in the bulk soil and soil aggregates. Treatments CT, N, NP, M, NM, NPM, NDM and NPDM represent no fertilizer control, N fertilizer, N and P fertilizers, farmyard manure at an agronomic rate, N plus manure, NP plus manure, N plus double amounts of manure and NP plus double amounts of manure, respectively. Error bars are standard errors of means (n = 3). Different capital and lowercase letters indicate significant differences between aggregate fractions within a fertilizer treatment and between fertilizer treatments within an aggregate fraction, respectively, at P < 0.05 according to Duncan's multiple range test. (PNG 36 kb)

High Resolution Image (TIF 359 kb)

Fig. S5

Effects of different long-term fertilization treatments on the relative contributions (%) of total microbial necromass (a), bacterial necromass (b) and fungal necromass (c) to soil organic C (SOC) in the bulk soil and soil aggregates. Treatments CT, N, NP, M, NM, NPM, NDM and NPDM represent no fertilizer control, N fertilizer, N and P fertilizers, farmyard manure at an agronomic rate, N plus manure, NP plus manure, N plus double amounts of manure and NP plus double amounts of manure, respectively. Error bars are standard errors of means (n = 3). Different capital and lowercase letters indicate significant differences between aggregate fractions within a fertilizer treatment and between fertilizer treatments within an aggregate fraction, respectively, at P < 0.05 according to Duncan's multiple range test. (PNG 87 kb)

High Resolution Image (TIF 929 kb)

Table S1

Experimental design and application rates of chemical and organic fertilizers in different fertilizer treatments in the summer cropping and winter fallow agroecosystem. (DOCX 17 kb)

Table S2

Changes in soil C/N ratios after 10% HF treatment of soil samples and the calculated R factors. (DOCX 16 kb)

Table S3

The relative proportions (%) of different organic functional groups of the farmyard manure. (DOCX 15 kb)

Table S4

Effects of different long-term (33 years) fertilization treatments on the aggregate-associated soil organic C (SOC) content and amount. Values are means ± standard errors (n = 3). Different capital and lowercase letters indicate significant differences between soil aggregate fractions within a fertilizer treatment and between fertilizer treatments within an aggregate fraction, respectively, at P < 0.05 according to Duncan's multiple range test. (DOCX 18 kb)

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Huang, X., Jia, Z., Wang, J. et al. Linking soil aggregation to organic matter chemistry in a Calcic Cambisol: evidence from a 33-year field experiment. Biol Fertil Soils 59, 73–85 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-022-01684-3

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