Increasing soil organic carbon with maize in cotton-based cropping systems: Mechanisms and potential

Osanai, Yui; Knox, Oliver; Nachimuthu, Gunasekhar; Wilson, Brian

doi:10.1016/j.agee.2020.106985

Cited by 17 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 66 publications

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“…Overall, the SOC concentration was greater at 0–5 cm depth, but the SOC stock was greater at 10–20 cm depth, which could be attributed to differences in soil bulk density. Our results are in agreement with Osanai, Knox, Nachimuthu, and Wilson (2020), who also reported that SOC concentration was greater (1.5%) at 5 cm depth compared with 20 cm depth (1%), whereas SOC stock was greater at 15–30 cm depth (25 t C ha −1 ) than that of 0–15 cm depth (20 t C ha −1 ). The greater SOC stock at greater depths could be because of high root biomass input and addition of root‐derived organic substances at these depths compared with the surface layer.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 92%

Soil carbon improvement under long‐term (36 years) no‐till sorghum production in a sub‐tropical environment

Govindasamy

Liu

Provin

et al. 2020

Soil Use and Management

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Soil organic matter (SOM) is considered an important indicator of soil quality, which can be impacted by crop production practices such as tillage. In this study, two long‐term tillage regimes (conventional tillage [CT] and no tillage [NT], conducted for 36 years) were compared in continuous sorghum production in a sub‐tropical environment in southeast Texas. The positive effects of long‐term NT practice were more conspicuous at the soil surface compared with the deeper soil profiles. The SOC was greater (1.5 t C ha−1 greater) in the NT system compared with the CT system. Results from an incubation study indicate that the rate of C‐min at 0–5 cm soil depth was significantly greater (164 μg of CO2–C g−1 of soil greater) in NT than that of CT, but this trend was reversed at 10–20 cm depth wherein the C‐min rates were 106 μg of CO2–C g−1 of soil greater in CT compared with NT, which is likely because of soil disturbance during the study. Soil cumulative CO2‐C emissions were greater in the CT system (7.28 g m−2) than in the NT system (5.19 g m−2), which is primarily attributed to high soil temperature conditions in the CT system. Sorghum grain yield however was not influenced by the differences in SOC content in this long‐term experiment. Overall, the present study found that long‐term conservation tillage improved SOC stock and reduced carbon loss, thus had a positive impact on soil health and sustainability.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 92%

Soil carbon improvement under long‐term (36 years) no‐till sorghum production in a sub‐tropical environment

Govindasamy

Liu

Provin

et al. 2020

Soil Use and Management

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“…5), in particular the resilience to warming. Many previous studies have demonstrated that crop yields are under the modulation of soil carbon stocks and higher SOC content can normally lead to higher pasture and/or crop yields (Harrison et al, 2021;Osanai et al, 2020;Stockmann et al, 2013). Here we further demonstrated that SOC could help buffer the adverse effects of climate warming.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 70%

Soil properties resulting in superior maize yields upon climate warming

Feng

Wang

Harrison

et al. 2022

Agron. Sustain. Dev.

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The impacts of global climate warming on maize yield vary regionally. However, less is known about how soil modulates regionally specific impacts and soil properties that are able to alleviate adverse impacts of climate warming on maize productivity. In this study, we investigated the impacts of multiple soil inherent properties on the sensitivity of maize yield (SY,T) to growing season temperature across China. Our results show that a 1°C warming resulted in the largest yield decline (11.2 ± 6.1%) in the mid-eastern region, but the moderate yield increase (1.5 ± 2.9%) in the north-eastern region. Spatial variability in soil properties explained around 72% of the variation in SY,T. Soil organic carbon (SOC) content positively contributed the greatest extent (28.9%) to spatial variation of SY,T, followed by field capacity (9.7%). Beneficial impacts of increasing SOC content were pronounced in the north-eastern region where SOC content (11.9 ± 4.3 g kg−1) was much higher than other regions. Other soil properties (e.g., plant wilting point, sand content, bulk density, and saturated water content) were generally negatively correlated with SY,T. This study is the first one to answer how soil inherent properties can modulate the negative impacts of climate warming on maize yield in China. Our findings highlight the importance of SOC in alleviating adverse global warming impacts on maize productivity. To ensure food security for a rapidly increasing population under a changing climate, appropriate farming management practices that improve SOC content could reduce risk of adverse effects of global climate warming through a gain in yield stability and more resilient production in China’s maize belt.

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“…Both systems received 260 kg N ha −1 per season, with no P fertiliser applied due to critical Colwell P levels being <6 mg kg −1 for cotton [45]. Samples were collected at the midpoint between the head ditch and tail drainage ends (the site map can be viewed in Osanai, Knox, Nachimuthu and Wilson [25]) in continuous cotton (CC) and cotton-maize (CM) plots within the same field [27,29] over two seasons and at different crop status, these being post pupae busting and prior to planting in October 2015 and 2016 (pre-crop) and at flowering status (in-crop) January 2016 (CC-cotton; CM-maize) and 2017 (CC-cotton; CM-cotton). During season 1 (2015/2016), the minimum and maximum soil temperatures were 6.7 and 36.5 • C, respectively, with a total rainfall of 537 mm and irrigation volumes of 720 mm (CC) and 564 mm (CM) [28,46].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our research was part of a larger project investigating the impact of agricultural management of cotton crop rotations on subsoil properties in Vertosols [25,26]. These experiments were undertaken on a long-term field site that has been the basis for studies into the impact of field management, crop rotation and rooting depth on soil physical and chemical properties for over 30 years [27][28][29].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Subsoil Microbial Diversity and Stability in Rotational Cotton Systems

et al. 2020

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Microbial diversity has been well documented for the top 0–0.30 m of agricultural soils. However, spatio-temporal research into subsoil microbial diversity and the effects of agricultural management remains limited. Soil type may influence subsoil microbial diversity, particularly Vertosols. These soils lack distinct horizons and are known to facilitate the downward movement of organic matter, potentially supporting subsoil microbiota, removed from the crop root system (i.e., bulk soils). Our research used the MiSeq Illumina Platform to investigate microbial diversity down the profile of an agricultural Australian Vertosol to 1.0 m in bulk soils, as influenced by crop system (continuous cotton and cotton–maize) and sample time (pre- and in-crop samples collected over two seasons). Overall, both alpha- (Chao1, Gini–Simpson Diversity and Evenness indices) and beta-diversity (nMDS and Sørensen’s Index of Similarity) metrics indicated that both bacterial (16S) diversity and fungal (ITS) diversity decreased with increasing soil depth. The addition of a maize rotation did not significantly influence alpha-diversity metrics until 0.70–1.0 m depth in the soil, where bacterial diversity was significantly higher in this system, with beta-diversity measures indicating this is likely due to root system differences influencing dissolved organic carbon. Sample time did not significantly affect bacterial or fungal diversity over the two seasons, regardless of the crop type and status (i.e., crop in ground and post crop). The relatively stable subsoil fungal and overall microbial diversity in bulk soils over two crop seasons suggests that these microbiota have developed a tolerance to prolonged agricultural management.

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Increasing soil organic carbon with maize in cotton-based cropping systems: Mechanisms and potential

Cited by 17 publications

References 66 publications

Soil carbon improvement under long‐term (36 years) no‐till sorghum production in a sub‐tropical environment

Soil carbon improvement under long‐term (36 years) no‐till sorghum production in a sub‐tropical environment

Soil properties resulting in superior maize yields upon climate warming

Subsoil Microbial Diversity and Stability in Rotational Cotton Systems

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