scholarly journals Straw incorporation increases crop yield and soil organic carbon sequestration but varies under different natural conditions and farming practices in China: a system analysis

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiao Han ◽  
Cong Xu ◽  
Jennifer A. J. Dungait ◽  
Roland Bol ◽  
Xiaojie Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Soil Organic Carbon ◽  
Crop Yield ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
System Analysis ◽  
Net Primary Productivity ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Practical Significance ◽  
Straw Incorporation ◽  
Initial Starting

Abstract. Loss of soil organic carbon (SOC) from agricultural soils is a key indicator of soil degradation associated with reductions in net primary productivity in crop production systems worldwide. Simple technical and locally appropriate solutions are required for farmers to increase SOC and to improve cropland management. In the last 30 years, straw incorporation has gradually been implemented across China in the context of agricultural intensification and rural livelihood improvement. A meta-analysis of data published before the end of 2016 was undertaken to investigate the effects of straw incorporation on crop production and SOC sequestration. The results of 68 experimental studies throughout China in different edaphic, climate regions and under different farming regimes were analyzed. Compared with straw removal, straw incorporation significantly sequestered SOC (0–20 cm depth) at the rate of 0.35 (range 0.31–0.40) Mg C ha−1 yr−1, increased crop grain yield by 13.4 % (range 9.3 %–18.4 %) and had a conversion efficiency of the applied straw-C as 16 % ± 2 % across the whole of China. The combined straw incorporation at the rate of 3 Mg C ha−1 yr−1 with mineral fertilizer of 200–400 kg N ha−1 yr−1 was demonstrated to be the best combination for farmers to use with crop yield increased by 32.7 % (range 17.9 %–56.4 %) and SOC sequestrated by the rate of 0.85 (range 0.54–1.15) Mg C ha−1 yr−1. Straw incorporation achieved higher SOC sequestration rate and crop yield increment when applied to clay soils, under high cropping intensities, and in areas like Northeast China where the soil is being degraded. SOC responses were the greatest in the initial starting phase of straw incorporation and then declined and finally were negligible after 28–62 years, however, crop yield responses were initially low and then increased reaching their highest level at 11–15 years after straw incorporation. Overall, our study confirmed that straw incorporation did create a positive feedback loop of SOC enhancement together with increased crop production, and this is of great practical significance to straw management as agricultural intensifies in China and other regions in the world with different climate conditions.

scholarly journals Straw incorporation increases crop yield and soil organic carbon sequestration but varies under different natural conditions and farming practices in China: a system analysis

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (7) ◽  
pp. 1933-1946 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiao Han ◽  
Cong Xu ◽  
Jennifer A. J. Dungait ◽  
Roland Bol ◽  
Xiaojie Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Soil Organic Carbon ◽  
Crop Yield ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
System Analysis ◽  
Net Primary Productivity ◽  
Practical Importance ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Straw Incorporation ◽  
Initial Starting

Abstract. Loss of soil organic carbon (SOC) from agricultural soils is a key indicator of soil degradation associated with reductions in net primary productivity in crop production systems worldwide. Technically simple and locally appropriate solutions are required for farmers to increase SOC and to improve cropland management. In the last 30 years, straw incorporation (SI) has gradually been implemented across China in the context of agricultural intensification and rural livelihood improvement. A meta-analysis of data published before the end of 2016 was undertaken to investigate the effects of SI on crop production and SOC sequestration. The results of 68 experimental studies throughout China in different edaphic conditions, climate regions and farming regimes were analyzed. Compared with straw removal (SR), SI significantly sequestered SOC (0–20 cm depth) at the rate of 0.35 (95 % CI, 0.31–0.40) Mg C ha−1 yr−1, increased crop grain yield by 13.4 % (9.3–18.4 %) and had a conversion efficiency of the incorporated straw C of 16 % ± 2 % across China. The combined SI at the rate of 3 Mg C ha−1 yr−1 with mineral fertilizer of 200–400 kg N ha−1 yr−1 was demonstrated to be the best farming practice, where crop yield increased by 32.7 % (17.9–56.4 %) and SOC sequestrated by the rate of 0.85 (0.54–1.15) Mg C ha−1 yr−1. SI achieved a higher SOC sequestration rate and crop yield increment when applied to clay soils under high cropping intensities, and in areas such as northeast China where the soil is being degraded. The SOC responses were highest in the initial starting phase of SI, then subsequently declined and finally became negligible after 28–62 years. However, crop yield responses were initially low and then increased, reaching their highest level at 11–15 years after SI. Overall, our study confirmed that SI created a positive feedback loop of SOC enhancement together with increased crop production, and this is of great practical importance to straw management as agriculture intensifies both in China and other regions with different climate conditions.

Effect of conservation tillage on crop yield and soil organic carbon in Northeast China: A meta‐analysis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cong He ◽  
Jia‐Rui Niu ◽  
Cheng‐Tang Xu ◽  
Shou‐Wei Han ◽  
Wei Bai ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Soil Organic Carbon ◽  
Crop Yield ◽  
Northeast China ◽  
Conservation Tillage ◽  
Meta Analysis

Effect of straw amendment modes on soil organic carbon, nitrogen sequestration and crop yield on the North‐Central Plain of China

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 511-525 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huili Zhao ◽  
Peng Ning ◽  
Yanlong Chen ◽  
Jifei Liu ◽  
Shar A. Ghaffar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Soil Organic Carbon ◽  
Crop Yield ◽  
North Central ◽  
Central Plain ◽  
The North ◽  
Nitrogen Sequestration ◽  
Straw Amendment

scholarly journals Management induced changes of soil organic carbon on global croplands

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristine Karstens ◽  
Benjamin Leon Bodirsky ◽  
Jan Philipp Dietrich ◽  
Marta Dondini ◽  
Jens Heinke ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Soil Organic Carbon ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Crop Residues ◽  
Agricultural Management ◽  
Natural State ◽  
Management Decisions ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Soil Model ◽  
Arable Farming

Abstract. Soil organic carbon (SOC) is one of the largest terrestrial carbon stocks on Earth. The first meter of the Earths soils profile stores three times as much carbon as the vegetation and twice the amount of C in the atmosphere. SOC has been depleted by anthropogenic land cover change and agricultural management. However, the latter has so far not been well represented in global carbon stock assessments. While SOC models often simulate detailed biochemical processes that lead to the accumulation and decay of SOC, the management decisions driving these biophysical processes are still little investigated at the global scale. Here we develop a spatial explicit data set for agricultural management on cropland, considering crop production levels, residue returning rates, manure application, and the adoption of irrigation and tillage practices. We combine it with the IPCC Tier 2 steady-state soil model to create a half-degree resolution data set of SOC stocks and SOC stock changes for the first 30 cm of mineral soils. We estimate that due to arable farming, soils have lost around 26 GtC relative to a counterfactual natural state in 1975. Yet, within the period 1975–2010 this SOC debt has been decreasing again by a net quantity of 4 Gt SOC, which can be mainly traced back to an increased input of C in crop residues due to higher crop productivity. We also find that SOC is very sensitive to management decisions such as residue returning indicating the necessity to incorporate better management data in soil model simulations.

scholarly journals Divergent controls of soil organic carbon between observations and process-based models

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katerina Georgiou ◽  
Avni Malhotra ◽  
William R. Wieder ◽  
Jacqueline H. Ennis ◽  
Melannie D. Hartman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Soil Organic Carbon ◽  
Primary Productivity ◽  
Net Primary Productivity ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Mean Annual Temperature ◽  
Biogeochemical Models ◽  
Soc Stocks ◽  
Process Based Models

AbstractThe storage and cycling of soil organic carbon (SOC) are governed by multiple co-varying factors, including climate, plant productivity, edaphic properties, and disturbance history. Yet, it remains unclear which of these factors are the dominant predictors of observed SOC stocks, globally and within biomes, and how the role of these predictors varies between observations and process-based models. Here we use global observations and an ensemble of soil biogeochemical models to quantify the emergent importance of key state factors – namely, mean annual temperature, net primary productivity, and soil mineralogy – in explaining biome- to global-scale variation in SOC stocks. We use a machine-learning approach to disentangle the role of covariates and elucidate individual relationships with SOC, without imposing expected relationships a priori. While we observe qualitatively similar relationships between SOC and covariates in observations and models, the magnitude and degree of non-linearity vary substantially among the models and observations. Models appear to overemphasize the importance of temperature and primary productivity (especially in forests and herbaceous biomes, respectively), while observations suggest a greater relative importance of soil minerals. This mismatch is also evident globally. However, we observe agreement between observations and model outputs in select individual biomes – namely, temperate deciduous forests and grasslands, which both show stronger relationships of SOC stocks with temperature and productivity, respectively. This approach highlights biomes with the largest uncertainty and mismatch with observations for targeted model improvements. Understanding the role of dominant SOC controls, and the discrepancies between models and observations, globally and across biomes, is essential for improving and validating process representations in soil and ecosystem models for projections under novel future conditions.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document