Soil organic carbon(SOC), soil microbial biomass carbon(SMBC) and SMBC quotient(SMBC/SOC, qSMBC) are key indexes of soil biological fertility because of the relationship to soil nutrition supply capacity. Yet it remains unknown how these three indexes change, which limits our understanding about how soil respond to different fertilization practices. Based on a 22-yr(1990-2011) long-term fertilization experiment in northwest China, we investigated the dynamics of SMBC and qSMBC during the growing period of winter wheat, the relationships between the SMBC, qSMBC, soil organic carbon(SOC) concentrations, the carbon input and grain yield of wheat as well. Fertilization treatments were 1) nonfertilization(control); 2) chemical nitrogen plus phosphate plus potassium(NPK); 3) NPK plus animal manure(NPKM); 4) double NPKM(hNPKM) and 5) NPK plus straw(NPKS). Results showed that the SMBC and qSMBC were significantly different among returning, jointing, flowering and harvest stages of wheat under long-term fertilization. And the largest values were observed in the flowering stage. Values for SMBC and qSMBC ranged from 37.5 to 106.0 mg kg-1 and 0.41 to 0.61%, respectively. The mean value rank of SMBC during the whole growing period of wheat was hNPKM>NPKM>NPKS>CK>NPK. But there were no statistically significant differences between hNPKM and NPKM, or between CK and NPK. The order for qSMBC was NPKS>NPKM>CK>hNPKM>NPK. These results indicated that NPKS significantly increased the ratio of SMBC to SOC, i.e., qSMBC, compared with NPK fertilizer or other two NPKM fertilizations. Significant linear relationships were observed between the annual carbon input and SOC(P<0.01) or SMBC(P<0.05), and between the relative grain yield of wheat and the SOC content as well(P<0.05). But the qSMBC was not correlated with the annual carbon input. It is thus obvious that the combination of manure, straw with mineral fertilizer may be benefit to increase SOC and improve soil quality than using only mineral fertilizer.
In order to reveal the impact of various fertilization strategies on carbon(C) and nitrogen(N) accumulation and allocation in corn(Zea mays L.), corn was grown in the fields where continuous fertilization management had been lasted about 18 years at two sites located in Central and Northeast China(Zhengzhou and Gongzhuling), and biomass C and N contents in different organs of corn at harvest were analyzed. The fertilization treatments included non-fertilizer(control), chemical fertilizers of either nitrogen(N), or nitrogen and phosphorus(NP), or phosphorus and potassium(PK), or nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium(NPK), NPK plus manure(NPKM), 150% of the NPKM(1.5NPKM), and NPK plus straw(NPKS). The results showed that accumulated C in aboveground ranged from 2 550–5 630 kg ha–1 in the control treatment to 9 300–9 610 kg ha–1 in the NPKM treatment, of which 57–67% and 43–50% were allocated in the non-grain organs, respectively. Accumulated N in aboveground ranged from 44.8–55.2 kg ha–1 in the control treatment to 211–222 kg ha–1 in the NPKM treatment, of which 35–48% and 33–44% were allocated in the non-grain parts, respectively. C allocated to stem and leaf for the PK treatment was 65 and 49% higher than that for the NPKM treatment at the both sites, respectively, while N allocated to the organs for the PK treatment was 18 and 6% higher than that for the NPKM treatment, respectively. This study demonstrated that responses of C and N allocation in corn to fertilization strategies were different, and C allocation was more sensitive to fertilization treatments than N allocation in the area.
Soil organic carbon(SOC) and soil Olsen-P are key soil fertility indexes but information on their relationships is limited particularly under long-term fertilization. We investigated the relationships between SOC and the percentage of soil Olsen-P to total P(PSOPTP) under six different 15-yr(1990-2004) long-term fertilizations at two cropping systems in northern China. These fertilization treatments were(1) unfertilized control(control);(2) chemical nitrogen(N);(3) N plus chemical P(NP);(4) NP plus chemical potassium(NPK);(5) NPK plus animal manure(NPKM) and(6) high NPKM(hNPKM). Compared with their initial values in 1989 at both sites, during the 11th to 15th fertilization years annual mean SOC contents were significantly increased by 39.4-47.0% and 58.9-93.9% at Gongzhuling, Jilin Province, and Urumqi, Xinjiang, China, under the two NPKM fertilizations, respectively, while no significant changes under the no-P or chemical P fertilization. During the 11th to 15th fertilization years, annual mean PSOPTP was respectively increased by 2.6-4.2 and 5.8-14.1 times over the initial values under the two chemical P fertilizations and the two NPKM fertilizations, but was unchanged in their initial levels under the two no-P fertilizations at both sites. Over the 15-yr long-term fertilization SOC significantly positively correlated with PSOPTP(r2=0.55-0.79, P<0.01). We concluded that the combination of chemical P plus manure is an effective way to promote SOC accumulation and the percentage of soil Olsen-P to total P at the two mono-cropping system sites in northern China.
