Tillage and residue management effects on soil aggregation, organic carbon dynamics and yield attribute in rice–wheat cropping system under reclaimed sodic soil
Introduction
Soil aggregation is an imperative mechanism contributing to soil fertility by reducing soil erosion and mediating air permeability, water infiltration, and nutrient cycling (Spohn and Giani, 2011, Zhang et al., 2012). Soil aggregates are important agents of soil organic carbon (SOC) retention (Haile et al., 2008) and protection against decomposition (Six et al., 2000a). Quantity and quality of SOC fractions have an impact on soil aggregation (Lal, 2000) that in turn physically protect the carbon (C) from degradation by increasing the mean residence time of C (Bajracharya et al., 1997). Soil management through the use of different tillage systems affects soil aggregation directly by physical disruption of the macroaggregates, and indirectly through alteration of biological and chemical factors (Barto et al., 2010). Conventional tillage (CT) generally abrades the network of mycelium by mechanical breakdown of macroaggregates (Borie et al., 2006), and decreases the content of soil organic C (SOC), microbial biomass and faunal activities (Mikha and Rice, 2004, Sainju et al., 2009, Curaqueo et al., 2011). Conservation tillage practices with minimal soil disturbance and residue retention are becoming economically and ecologically more viable option as they save energy and provide more favourable soil conditions (Husnjak et al., 2002) for sustainable crop production and SOC sequestration for future posterity.
Rice–wheat cropping rotation has been spread over an area of about 10 Mha in Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) of India (Kumar et al., 1998) and together contributes 85% to India's cereal production (Timsina and Connor, 2001). Intensive tillage, residue removal and burning practised during the whole crop season accelerate soil erosion, environmental pollution, soil degradation (Montgomery, 2007) and affects ecosystem functions (Srinivasan et al., 2012). Therefore, adoption of the rational cropping practices, such as crop residue recycling (Aoyama et al., 1999, Blair et al., 2006), manure application (Hao et al., 2003, Rudrappa et al., 2006), conservation tillage (Gale and Cambardella, 2000, Six et al., 2000a), and farmland fallow (Nair et al., 2009), would be a century need for improving the soil quality and ecosystem function. Available database on on-station farm trials across the Indo-Gangetic Plains in India, divulges the wheat yield increment under conservation tillage ranging from 1% to 12% with an average of 240 kg ha−1 across the area of study (Erestein and Laxmi, 2008). Thus, the cultivation of rice (transplanted/direct seeded) and wheat crops grown rotationally with different tillage and residue management practices has been advocated to evaluate its long-term effect on yield attributes, aggregation and C stabilization in different size aggregates in reclaimed sodic soil of north Indian sub-continent. We hypothesize that direct seeded rice under reduced/zero tillage along with crop residue retention could lead to improved soil aggregation and C sequestration and sustainable yield increment for future posterity of the rice–wheat cropping systems.
Section snippets
The experimental site
A long-term field experiment was established in the year 2006 at Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, Karnal, (29°43′ N 76°58′ E, 245 m above mean sea level), Haryana, India, with rice (Oryza sativa L.)–wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cropping system. The mean minimum and maximum temperatures of the site are 18.8 °C and 29.2 °C, respectively. Annual rainfall ranges between 700 and 800 mm and more than 70% of it occurs during the monsoon months of July to September. The experimental plot had a
Different forms of soil carbon
Resource conservation practices significantly influenced the total soil carbon (TC), total soil organic carbon (SOC) and oxidizable organic carbon (OC) content of the surface (0–15 cm) soil (Table 2). Zero tillage with (T6) or without residue management (T5) showed significantly higher TC, SOC content of 12.33 and 11.98 g kg−1, respectively in T6 and 11.73 and 11.38 g kg−1, respectively in T5 (Table 2) as compared to the other treatments. Irrespective of residue incorporation/retention, zero tillage
Effect of residue and tillage management on soil aggregation and yield equivalent
The management of previous crop residues is the key to soil structural development and stability since organic matter is an important factor in soil aggregation (Verhulst et al., 2011). Residue incorporation or retention caused a significant increment of 15.65% in total water stable aggregates in surface soil (0–15 cm) and 7.53% in sub-surface soil (15–30 cm), which depicted that residue management could improve 2.1-fold higher water stable aggregates as compared to the other treatments without
Conclusion
Our study corroborates that DSR and wheat in zero tillage coupled with residue retention is a suitable management practice for enhancing soil C sequestration and sustainable yield increment even in reclaimed sodic soil of hot semi-arid zone of Indian sub-continent. This has a potential to increase total SOC content by 33.6%, equivalent wheat yield by 8.3%, water stable macroaggregates by 53.8% and macroaggregate associated C by 20.8% over conventional tillage with transplanted rice after five
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