Effects of Straw Incorporation on Soil Organic Matter and Soil Water-Stable Aggregates Content in Semiarid Regions of Northwest China

The soil degradation caused by conventional tillage in rain-fed areas of northwest China is known to reduce the water–use efficiency and crop yield because of reduced soil porosity and the decreased availability of soil water and nutrients. Thus, we investigated the effects of straw incorporation on soil aggregates with different straw incorporation rates in semiarid areas of southern Ningxia for a three-year period (2008–2010). Four treatments were tested: (i) no straw incorporation (CK); (ii) incorporation of maize straw at a low rate of 4 500 kg ha(−1) (L); (iii) incorporation of maize straw at a medium rate of 9000 kg ha(−1) (M); (iv) incorporation of maize straw at a high rate of 13 500 kg ha(−1) (H). The results in the final year of treatments (2010) showed that the mean soil organic carbon storage of the 0–60 cm soil layers were significantly (P<0.05) increased with H, M, and L, by 21.40%, 20.38% and 8.21% compared with CK, respectively. Straw incorporation increased >0.25 mm water-stable macroaggregates level, geometric mean diameter, mean weight diameter and the aggregate stability, which were ranked in order of increasing straw incorporation rates: H/M > L > CK. Straw incorporation significantly (P<0.05) reduced the fractal dimension in the 0–40 cm soil layers compared with CK. Our results suggest that straw incorporation is an effective practice for improving the soil aggregate structure and stability.