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Temporal variability of soil organic carbon in paddies during 13‐year conservation tillage
Author(s) -
Qi JianYing,
Wang Xing,
Zhao Xin,
Pu Chao,
Kan ZhengRong,
Li Chao,
Liu Peng,
Xiao XiaoPing,
Lal Rattan,
Zhang HaiLin
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
land degradation and development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.403
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1099-145X
pISSN - 1085-3278
DOI - 10.1002/ldr.3384
Subject(s) - tillage , soil carbon , environmental science , plough , conventional tillage , agronomy , paddy field , soil science , soil water , biology
Decreasing temporal variability of soil organic carbon (SOC) can avoid its temporary loss, which is positive to SOC accumulation and mitigation of climate change. Thus, this study was designed to analyze the temporal variability of SOC stock during 13‐year tillage practices and its driving factors in rice paddies of Southern China. Four tillage practices were studied: no‐till (zero‐tillage) with residues retained on the soil surface (NTS, conservation tillage), rotary tillage with incorporated residues (RTS), moldboard plow tillage with incorporated residues, or with residues removed. The SOC stock at 0–30 cm soil depth varied widely between 2007 and 2017, partly due to the annual temperature and precipitation variations. The temporal variation of SOC was lower under NTS than other tillage practices ( p < .05). This was associated with the lower variation of heavy SOC and mineral associated SOC as well as with lower ( p < .05) potential mineralizable carbon under NTS. Despite SOC saturated in all treatments, NTS increased ( p < .05) the SOC content by 12.1%–35.3% at 0–5 cm soil depth. Thus, NTS in double rice paddies has been proved to be a promising option to maintain high levels of soil C accumulation with low temporal variability, especially at the upper 0–5 cm depth.