The effects of manure and nitrogen fertilizer applications on soil organic carbon and nitrogen in a high-input cropping system

PLoS One. 2014 May 15;9(5):e97732. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0097732. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

With the goal of improving N fertilizer management to maximize soil organic carbon (SOC) storage and minimize N losses in high-intensity cropping system, a 6-years greenhouse vegetable experiment was conducted from 2004 to 2010 in Shouguang, northern China. Treatment tested the effects of organic manure and N fertilizer on SOC, total N (TN) pool and annual apparent N losses. The results demonstrated that SOC and TN concentrations in the 0-10cm soil layer decreased significantly without organic manure and mineral N applications, primarily because of the decomposition of stable C. Increasing C inputs through wheat straw and chicken manure incorporation couldn't increase SOC pools over the 4 year duration of the experiment. In contrast to the organic manure treatment, the SOC and TN pools were not increased with the combination of organic manure and N fertilizer. However, the soil labile carbon fractions increased significantly when both chicken manure and N fertilizer were applied together. Additionally, lower optimized N fertilizer inputs did not decrease SOC and TN accumulation compared with conventional N applications. Despite the annual apparent N losses for the optimized N treatment were significantly lower than that for the conventional N treatment, the unchanged SOC over the past 6 years might limit N storage in the soil and more surplus N were lost to the environment. Consequently, optimized N fertilizer inputs according to root-zone N management did not influence the accumulation of SOC and TN in soil; but beneficial in reducing apparent N losses. N fertilizer management in a greenhouse cropping system should not only identify how to reduce N fertilizer input but should also be more attentive to improving soil fertility with better management of organic manure.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Carbon / analysis
  • Carbon / chemistry*
  • Crops, Agricultural / growth & development
  • Fertilizers*
  • Manure
  • Nitrogen / analysis
  • Nitrogen / chemistry*
  • Soil / chemistry*
  • Solanum lycopersicum / growth & development

Substances

  • Fertilizers
  • Manure
  • Soil
  • Carbon
  • Nitrogen

Grants and funding

The authors are grateful to the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31071858), Innovative Research Team of Beijing Fruit Vegetable Industry, the innovative group grant of NSFC (No. 30821003) and Basic Application and Cutting-edge Technology Research Projects of Tianjin City (09JCYBJC08600). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.