Responses of soil organic carbon stock to animal manure application: A new global synthesis integrating the impacts of agricultural managements and environmental conditions

Abstract

Enhancing soil organic carbon (SOC) through applying animal manure is of interest for both sustaining cereal production and mitigating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.Previous syntheses showed that manuring-induced SOC changes varied substantially with agricultural managements and environmental conditions, while their significance and relative importance to such variability are still largely uncertain. Here, we presented a new synthesis using an updated and balanced database integrating the manuring-induced SOC stock changes and their plausible explanatory factors in 250 observations at global 120 sites. Manure application increased SOC stock by 7.41 ± 1.14 (95% confidence interval, CI) and 8.96 ± 1.83 (95% CI) Mg C ha −1 , respectively, compared to their mineral fertilized (REF-min) and unfertilized (REF-zero) references. Of which approx. 72% and 34% were directly contributed by manure-C input, respectively. Following the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) approach, these changes corresponded to the manuring-induced SOC change factors of 1.27 ± 0.04 (95% CI) and 1.40 ± 0.08 (95% CI), respectively. Basing on a balanced database, we identified the amount of manure-C input as the most important factor to the global variations in the resultant SOC stock changes. More importantly, our integrative analysis distinguished the significance of soil properties (e.g., soil pH and initial SOC content) in regulating the efficiency of manure application in enhancing SOC stock. These results indicate that, at the similar rate, applying manure could sequestrate much more carbon in alkaline soils than in neutral and acidic soils. By integrating the impacts of agricultural managements and environmental conditions, our findings would help to develop region-specific tailor-made manure application measures in agriculture and to refine the SOC change factors for regional GHG inventories.

Manure Application Is the Key to Improving Soil Quality of New Terraces

“…The increase in the TN may be partially related to the biological N 2 fixation of the legume crops (pea). In addition, the SOC, TN, and MBC could be significantly increased by applying manure compared with applying no fertilizer or mineral fertilizer alone [5,49]. The application of manure affects the structure and composition of the microbial community, such as bacterial and fungal abundances [50,51].…”

Anthropogenic, Carbon-Reinforced Soil as a Living Engineered Material

“…Reducing soil to such a matrix medium of course is a brute, but for greenhouses apparently feasible simplification (Figure a). For farmland with its alternating climate, water, and light conditions and based on the above quoted observation that sustained fertility goes strictly with soil carbon content, people can differentiate essentially three anthropogenic approaches: (i) addition of manure and waste biomasses, , (ii) biochar addition, and (iii) natural and artificial humic substances (Figure b).…”

Combined organic-inorganic fertilization builds higher stability of soil and root microbial networks than exclusive mineral or organic fertilization

“…Studies have shown that the quantity and quality of SOM following N enrichment were linked with soil microbial communities and the associated enzyme activities (Craine et al, 2007). The organic fertilizer is known to enhance SOM and improve soil fertility (Li et al, 2021). A recent study indicated that the carbon loss under alpine permafrost deterioration is linked to decreasing microbiological stability (Wu et al, 2021).…”