Effects of Long-Term Conservation Tillage on Soil Carbon Content and Invertase Activity in Dry Farmland on the Loess Plateau

The effects of long-term conservation tillage on soil carbon and carbon invertase activity in forage-crop rotation system of dry farmland in the Loess Plateau were explored to provide the scientific basis for soil carbon sequestration and sustainable and healthy development of agriculture in dry farmland.

In this study, we aimed to investigate the effects of long-term traditional tillage (T), no-tillage (NT), traditional tillage+straw mulch (TS), and no-tillage+straw mulch (NTS) on soil organic carbon (SOC), microbial biomass carbon content (MBC), β-glycosidase (βG), cellobiohydrolase (CBH) and β-xylosidase enzymes (βX) in forage-crop rotation system at the National Field Scientific Observation and Research Station of the Grassland Agricultural Ecosystem in Qingyang, Gansu Province. Soils were collected from 0-5, 5-10 and 10-20 cm depths at the harvest of maize (Zea mays L.).

(1) Conservation tillage significantly increased the contents of SOC and MBC in soil, especially in 0-5 cm soil layer. Compared with conventional tillage, straw mulching increased SOC and MBC by 19.1% and 39.9%, respectively, and no-tillage increased SOC and MBC by 15.1% and 34.3%, respectively. (2) Conservation tillage significantly increased soil carbon invertase activity, the three enzyme activities showed: βG>CBH>βX, the sensitivity of conservation tillage measures showed: CBH>βX>βG. Compared with traditional tillage, the activities of βG, CBH and βX in 0-5 cm soil layer under straw mulching increased by 20.3%, 37.6% and 41.1%, respectively, and those under no-tillage increased by 12.5%, 31.0% and 26.1%, respectively. Straw mulching in 5-20 cm soil layer increased βG, CBH and βX by -7.6%, 99.9% and 3.5%, respectively, and no-tillage increased them by -21.1%, 22.1% and -12.1%, respectively. In addition, the structural equation results showed that soil carbon invertase activity was mainly affected by soil total nitrogen content in forage-crop rotation system. (3) Straw mulching could directly affect the accumulation of soil carbon, mainly affecting the activity of soil carbon invertase by changing the soil total nitrogen content; no tillage had no significant impact on soil environment, resulting in no significant changes in soil carbon content and carbon invertase activity.

The accumulation of soil carbon was mainly affected by the direct effect of straw mulching measures, and the activity of carbon invertase was mainly changed by the indirect effect of soil total nitrogen in the forage-crop rotation system of dry farmland in the Loess Plateau. Among them, no tillage combined with straw mulching was the most effective measure to improve soil carbon content and enzyme activity, and β- Glucosidase is the main enzyme involved in soil carbon inversion.