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No‐tillage with half‐amount residue retention enhances microbial functional diversity, enzyme activity and glomalin‐related soil protein content within soil aggregates
Author(s) -
Dai Jue,
Hu Junli,
Zhu Anning,
Lin Xiangui
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
soil use and management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.709
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1475-2743
pISSN - 0266-0032
DOI - 10.1111/sum.12329
Subject(s) - glomalin , tillage , crop residue , chemistry , agronomy , residue (chemistry) , soil carbon , soil water , biology , environmental science , soil science , agriculture , bacteria , biochemistry , ecology , symbiosis , genetics , arbuscular mycorrhizal
A 3‐year field tillage and residue management experiment established in North China was used to analyse topsoil (0–15 cm) aggregation, and microbial functional diversity, enzyme activity and glomalin‐related soil protein ( GRSP ) content within aggregates. Compared with conventional tillage ( CT ), no‐tillage ( NT ) alone significantly ( P < 0.05) increased organic C contents in 50–250 and <2 μ m aggregates and decreased the proportion of C accumulated by 2–50 μ m aggregates and microbial functional diversity indices in <2 μ m aggregates. Regardless of tillage practice, both half‐amount (C50) and full (C100) residue retention tended to increase organic C and GRSP contents, or dehydrogenase and invertase activities, in certain aggregates. Under CT , a poorer performance of C50 than C100 was observed in maintaining Shannon index ( H′ ) and Simpson index ( D ) in >250 and <2 μ m aggregates, and also McIntosh index ( U ) in <2 μ m aggregates, owing to insufficient residue and possible decreases in the distribution of decomposer micro‐organisms. Under NT , however, C50 was more effective than C100 in maintaining/elevating H′ , D and U in all soil aggregates except for 50–250 μ m, suggesting that surplus residue may induce worse soil conditions, decreasing heterotrophic microbial activities. Thus, NT with half‐amount residue retention improved soil physical–chemical–biological properties and could be a useful management practice in North China.