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Impact of organic matter addition on pH change of paddy soils

  • SOILS, SEC 1 • SOIL ORGANIC MATTER DYNAMICS AND NUTRIENT CYCLING • RESEARCH ARTICLE
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Abstract

Purpose

The objective of the present study was to explore the effect of initial pH on the decomposition rate of plant residues and the effect of residue type on soil pH change in three different paddy soils.

Materials and methods

Two variable charge paddy soils (Psammaquent soil and Plinthudult soil) and one constant charge paddy soil (Paleudalfs soil) were used to be incubated at 45 % of field capacity for 105 days at 25 °C in the dark after three plant residues (Chinese milk vetch, wheat straw, and rice straw) were separately added at a level of 12 g kg−1 soil. Soil pH, CO2 escaped, DOC, DON, MBC, MBN, NH +4 , and NO −3 during the incubation period were dynamically determined.

Results and discussion

Addition of the residues increased soil pH by 0.1–0.8 U, and pH reached a maximum in the Psammaquent and Plinthudult soils with low initial pH at day 105 but at day 3 in the Paleudalfs soil with high initial pH. Incorporation of Chinese milk vetch which had higher concentration of alkalinity (excess cations) and nitrogen increased soil pH more as compared with incorporation of rice and wheat straws. Microbial activity was the highest in Chinese milk vetch treatment, which resulted in the highest increase of soil pH as compared with addition of rice and wheat straws. However, nitrification seemed to be inhibited in the variable charge soils of Psammaquent and Plinthudult but not in the constant charge soil of Paleudalfs.

Conclusions

The effectiveness of increasing soil pH after incorporation of the plant materials would be longer in low initial pH soils of Psammaquent and Plinthudult than in high initial pH soil of Paleudalfs. In order to achieve the same degree of pH improvement, higher amounts of plant residues should be applied in constant charge soils than in variable charge soils.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (2011CB100502), National Science and Technology Support Program (2012BAD15B04), the Special Fund for Agro-scientific Research in the Public Interest (201003016), and the Australian Research Council (Discovery Project DP0877882). The authors gratefully acknowledge Professor Phillip C Brooks from Rothamsted Research, UK for his valuable suggestions and contribution to the language and syntax revise of this article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Environmental and Natural Resource Sciences, Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Subtropical Soil and Plant Nutrition, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, People’s Republic of China

    Yunfeng Wang, Jianjun Wu, Xingmei Liu & Jianming Xu

  2. Department of Agricultural Sciences, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Melbourne, Vic, 3086, Australia

    Caixian Tang

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  1. Yunfeng Wang
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  2. Caixian Tang
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  3. Jianjun Wu
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  4. Xingmei Liu
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Correspondence to Xingmei Liu or Jianming Xu.

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Responsible editor: Weixin Cheng

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Wang, Y., Tang, C., Wu, J. et al. Impact of organic matter addition on pH change of paddy soils. J Soils Sediments 13, 12–23 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-012-0578-x

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