scholarly journals Effects of conservation tillage on crop yield and soil organic carbon in Northeast China

Author(s):  
Cong He ◽  
Jia-Rui Niu ◽  
Cheng-Tang Xu ◽  
Shou-Wei Han ◽  
Wei Bai ◽  
...  

Northeast China(NEC) is the main grain-producing area in China, but soil degradation is severe due to the long-term use of conventional tillage(CT). It is necessary to restore soil fertility, maintain crop yield, and enhance sustainability using conservation tillage in NEC. However, the integrated effects of conservation tillage on crop yield and SOC under different conditions in NEC are still unclear. Using 70 peer-reviewed papers, we assessed the crop yield and SOC sequestration effect, and their relationship under no-till(NT), ridge tillage(RT), and subsoiling tillage(ST) in NEC. The results indicated that in areas with a mean annual temperature (MAT) < 3℃, yield under NT was significantly lower than CT by 3.7% whereas RT and ST were higher than CT by 0.8% and 13.1% (P<0.05). RT generally had a similar effect on yield as NT, but RT did not have a negative impact on yield in colder regions, indicating that this may be a more suitable conservation tillage practice in these areas. ST may be used in rotation with other tillage measures to maintain crop yield if necessary. NT could increase SOC concentration by 24.1%, 43.9%, and 17.4% under high MAT (>6℃), low mean annual precipitation (MAP) (<500mm), and continuous cropping, respectively. The mean SOC sequestration rate under NT, RT, and ST was 0.953, 0.099, and 0.101 Mg C ha-1 yr-1, respectively. Overall, the implementation of different conservation tillage measures in NEC can enhance crop yield as well as carbon sequestration, indicating its potential to be popularized in NEC.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cong He ◽  
Jia‐Rui Niu ◽  
Cheng‐Tang Xu ◽  
Shou‐Wei Han ◽  
Wei Bai ◽  
...  

Weed Science ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 184-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas A. Derksen ◽  
A. Gordon Thomas ◽  
Guy P. Lafond ◽  
Heather A. Loeppky ◽  
Clarence J. Swanton

Continuous-cropping conservation tillage systems may provide a viable alternative to the practice of summer fallow; however, concerns have been raised regarding potentially negative changes in weed communities in continuous cropping. Field experiments were established in Saskatchewan at three locations to determine the nature of weed community differences between a crop sequence with and without fallow in zero-, minimum-, and conventional-tillage systems from 1986 to 1990. Weed communities in continuous-cropping treatments tended to have greater total densities and were more similar in composition than crop-fallow treatments. Inclusion or exclusion of fallow within the rotation had a greater impact on weed community composition than did tillage system at Ituna and Waldron, but the reverse was true at Tadmore due to poor crop growth in all tillage systems. Differences in weed community composition were generally characterized by fluctuational changes in species associations. Volunteers of summer-annual crops, such as canola, flax, and barley, were associated with continuous cropping, but other species including perennial weeds, such as Canada thistle, perennial sowthistle, and quackgrass, were not strongly associated with the presence or absence of fallow. The practice of fallowing land to manage weeds may not be necessary.


2003 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 325 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Y. Chan ◽  
D. P. Heenan ◽  
H. B. So

Light-textured soils (<35% clay) make up more than 80%, by area, of cropping soils in Australia. Many have inherent soil physical problems, e.g. hardsetting, sodicity and low organic carbon levels. Maintenance and improvement of soil organic carbon levels are crucial to preserving the soil structure and physical fertility of these soils.A review of field trials on conservation tillage (3–19 years duration) on these soils in southern Australia revealed that significantly higher soil organic carbon levels compared with conventional tillage were found only in the wetter areas (>500 mm) and the differences were restricted to the top 2.5–10.0 cm. The average magnitude of the difference was lower than that reported in the USA. The lack of a positive response to conservation tillage is probably a reflection of a number of factors, namely low crop yield (due to low rainfall), partial removal of stubble by grazing and the high decomposition rate (due to the high temperature). There is evidence suggesting that under continuous cropping in the drier areas, the soil organic carbon level continues to decline, even under conservation tillage.Better soil structure and soil physical properties, namely macro-porosity, aggregate stability and higher infiltration have been reported under conservation tillage when compared with conventional tillage. However, little information on long-term changes of these properties under conservation tillage is available. As many of these soil qualities are associated directly or indirectly with soil organic carbon levels, the lack of significant increase in the latter suggests that many of these improvements may not be sustainable in the longer term, particularly in the drier areas. Continuous monitoring of long-term changes in the soil organic carbon and soil quality under conservation tillage in different agro-ecological zones is needed.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bingrui Jia ◽  
Guangsheng Zhou

Abstract. Dahurian larch (Larix gmelinii Rupr.) is the dominant species in both natural and planted forests in northeast China, which situated in the southernmost part of the global boreal forest biome and undergoing the greatest climatically induced changes. Published studies (1965–2015) on tree aboveground growth of Larix gmelinii forests in northeast China were collected in this study, critically reviewed, and a comprehensive growth dataset was developed from 123 sites, which distributed between 40.85° N and 53.47° N in latitude, between 118.20° E and 133.70° E in longitude, between 130 m and 1260 m in altitude. The dataset was composed of 776 entries, including growth data (mean tree height, mean DBH, mean tree volume and/or stand volume) and the associated information, i.e., geographical location (latitude, longitude, altitude, aspect and slope), climate (mean annual temperature (MAT) and mean annual precipitation (MAP)), stand description (origin, stand age, stand density and canopy density), and sample regime (observing year, plot area and number). It would provide quantitative references for plantation management practices and boreal forest growth prediction under future climate change. The DOI for the data is https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.880984.


SOIL ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-82
Author(s):  
Shixiu Zhang ◽  
Liang Chang ◽  
Neil B. McLaughlin ◽  
Shuyan Cui ◽  
Haitao Wu ◽  
...  

Abstract. Long-term (10 years) application of conservation tillage following conversion from conventional tillage (CT) can achieve a new equilibrium in the soil environment, which is vital to reverse soil biodiversity declines and fulfil the goal of maintaining agroecosystem sustainability. However, in such a situation, how the soil community regulates nutrient cycling impacting crop yield is not well documented. Therefore, the relations between mineralized nitrogen (N) delivered by soil food web and soybean (Glycine max Merr.) yield were investigated after 14 years application of CT, reduced tillage (RT) and no tillage (NT) in a black soil (Typic Hapludoll) of Northeast China. We hypothesized that soil mineralizable N would increase with the complexity of the soil food web, and that the trophic groups involved in associating N mineralization with crop yield will vary with soil depth in the conservation tillage practice. During the soybean growing season, soil organisms, including bacteria, fungi, nematodes, mites and collembolans, were extracted and identified monthly from 0–5 and 5–15 cm soil depths to estimate the complexity of the food web indicated by the species richness and connectance indices, and to simulate the mineralized N using energetic food web modelling. The species richness and connectance of the food web at both soil depths were significantly affected by tillage practices, and their values decreased of the order of NT > RT > CT. A similar trend was also revealed for the simulated N mineralization, that is, the mineralized N released either from the functional feeding guilds or from the energy pathways of the food web were greater in RT and NT than in CT at both soil depths. Multiple linear regression analysis showed that soil organisms involved in coupling the mineralized N with soybean yield were different at different soil depths, in which fungal and root pathways at 0–5 cm and bacterial pathway at 5–15 cm were the driving factors for the supply of mineralized N to soybean in NT and RT soils. These results support our hypothesis and highlight the essential role of soil food web complexity in coupling N mineralization and crop yield after long-term application of conservation tillage. Additionally, the current modelling work provides basic hypotheses for future studies to test the impact of soil biodiversity or specific functional guilds on the fate of N in agro-ecosystems.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaihua Liao ◽  
Xiaoming Lai ◽  
Qing Zhu

Abstract. The saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ksat) is a key soil hydraulic property governing agricultural production. However, the influence of conversion from conventional tillage (CT) to conservation tillage (CS) (including no tillage (NT) and reduced tillage (RT)) on Ksat of soils is not well understood and still debated. In this study, we applied a global meta-analysis method to synthesize 201 paired observations for soil Ksat from 59 published studies, and investigated factors influencing the effects of conversion to CS on Ksat. Results showed that the Ksat measured by hood infiltrometer, tension disc infiltrometer, and Guelph permeameter produced a similar pattern under CS practices, with non-significant (p > 0.05) increase of 6.6 %, 3.6 % and 4.9 %, respectively. However, conversion to CS significantly (p < 0.05) increased Ksat by 32.0 % for ring infiltrometer, while it decreased Ksat by 3.2 % for constant/falling head (p > 0.05). Soil layer, CS type and soil texture had no significant (p > 0.05) effects on the influence of conversion to CS on the Ksat, but the Ksat under CS showed a greater increase for a longer conversion period (time since conversion). In addition, mean annual temperature (MAT) was found to be an important driver controlling the response of Ksat to tillage conversion at the large scale. These findings suggested that quantifying the effects of tillage conversion on soil Ksat needed to consider experimental conditions, especially the measurement technique and conversion period.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 893-898
Author(s):  
Bingrui Jia ◽  
Guangsheng Zhou

Abstract. Dahurian larch (Larix gmelinii Rupr.) is the dominant species in both natural and planted forests in northeast China, which is situated in the southernmost part of the global boreal forest biome and is undergoing great climatically induced changes. Published studies (1965–2015) on tree above-ground growth of Dahurian larch forests in northeast China were collected in this study and critically reviewed, and a comprehensive growth data set was developed from 122 sites, which are distributed between 40.85 and 53.47∘ N in latitude, between 118.20 and 133.70∘ E in longitude and between 130 and 1260 m in altitude. The data set is composed of 743 entries and includes growth data (mean tree height, mean diameter at breast height (DBH), mean tree volume and/or stand volume) and associated information, i.e., geographical location (latitude, longitude, altitude, aspect and slope), climate (mean annual temperature (MAT) and mean annual precipitation (MAP)), stand description (origin, stand age, stand density and canopy density) and sample regime (observation year, plot area and plot number). It provides a quantitative reference for plantation management practices and boreal forest growth prediction under future climate change. The data set is freely available for noncommercial scientific applications, and the DOI for the data is https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.880984.


HortScience ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 494f-495 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy M. Johnson ◽  
Greg D. Hoyt

An experiment was established to determine the effect of different tillage practices, vegetable crop rotations, and pest management strategies on crop yield, plant diseases, pest and beneficial arthropods, weed species changes over time, and soil environmental consequences. This poster describes nitrogen movement from the various treatments over a 3-year rotation. The treatments are: 1) conventional tillage with chemically based IPM; 2) conventional tillage with biologically based IPM; 3) conservation tillage with chemically based IPM; 4) conservation tillage with biologically based IPM; and 5) conventional tillage with no fertilizer or pest management. Mid-season soil analyses with depth showed chemical-fertilized plowed and conservation-tilled treatments with more soil available nitrogen at most depths compared to the biological-based IPM systems (soybean meal was used as a nitrogen source). However, the biological-based systems did supply enough soil nitrogen to produce similar yield results as the chemical-based systems. Less soil nitrate was measured in the 30- to 90-cm depths at harvest from the biological-based systems than chemical-based systems. Conservation-tilled systems had greater nitrate with depth compared to conventional-tilled systems.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document