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Effects of long-term fertilisation on aggregates and dynamics of soil organic carbon in a semi-arid agro-ecosystem in China

BACKGROUND: Long-term fertilisation has a large influence on soil physical and chemical properties in agro-ecosystems. The effects on the distribution of aggregates, however, are not fully understood. We determined the dynamic change of the distribution of aggregates and soil organic carbon (SOC) co...

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Autores principales: Zhang, Jiaoyang, Sun, Caili, Liu, Guobin, Xue, Sha
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5967366/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29844955
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4758
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author Zhang, Jiaoyang
Sun, Caili
Liu, Guobin
Xue, Sha
author_facet Zhang, Jiaoyang
Sun, Caili
Liu, Guobin
Xue, Sha
author_sort Zhang, Jiaoyang
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Long-term fertilisation has a large influence on soil physical and chemical properties in agro-ecosystems. The effects on the distribution of aggregates, however, are not fully understood. We determined the dynamic change of the distribution of aggregates and soil organic carbon (SOC) content over time in a long-term field experiment established in 1998 on the Loess Plateau of China and illustrated the relationship between them. METHODS: We determined SOC content and the distribution of aggregates in nine fertiliser treatments: manure (M); nitrogen (N); phosphorus (P); M and N; M, N, and P; M and P; N and P; bare land; and an unfertilised control. These parameters were then used for a path analysis and to analyse the fractal dimension (D(v)). RESULTS: The organic fertiliser increased SOC content. The proportions of 0.1–0.25 mm microaggregates and 0.25–0.5 mm macroaggregates were higher and the proportion of the 0.01–0.05 mm size class of the silt + clay fraction was lower in the treatments receiving organic fertiliser (M, MN, MNP, and MP) than that in the control, indicating that the addition of organic fertiliser promoted aggregation. The distribution of aggregates characterised by their fractal dimension (D(v)), however, did not differ among the treatments. DISCUSSION: D(v) was strongly correlated with the proportion of the <0.002 mm size class of the silt + clay fraction that did not differ significantly among the treatments. The change in the distribution of aggregates was strongly correlated with SOC content, which could produce organic polymer binding agents to increase the proportion of larger particles. Long-term application of organic fertiliser is thus necessary for the improvement and maintenance of soil quality in semi-arid agricultural land when residues are removed.
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spelling pubmed-59673662018-05-29 Effects of long-term fertilisation on aggregates and dynamics of soil organic carbon in a semi-arid agro-ecosystem in China Zhang, Jiaoyang Sun, Caili Liu, Guobin Xue, Sha PeerJ Environmental Sciences BACKGROUND: Long-term fertilisation has a large influence on soil physical and chemical properties in agro-ecosystems. The effects on the distribution of aggregates, however, are not fully understood. We determined the dynamic change of the distribution of aggregates and soil organic carbon (SOC) content over time in a long-term field experiment established in 1998 on the Loess Plateau of China and illustrated the relationship between them. METHODS: We determined SOC content and the distribution of aggregates in nine fertiliser treatments: manure (M); nitrogen (N); phosphorus (P); M and N; M, N, and P; M and P; N and P; bare land; and an unfertilised control. These parameters were then used for a path analysis and to analyse the fractal dimension (D(v)). RESULTS: The organic fertiliser increased SOC content. The proportions of 0.1–0.25 mm microaggregates and 0.25–0.5 mm macroaggregates were higher and the proportion of the 0.01–0.05 mm size class of the silt + clay fraction was lower in the treatments receiving organic fertiliser (M, MN, MNP, and MP) than that in the control, indicating that the addition of organic fertiliser promoted aggregation. The distribution of aggregates characterised by their fractal dimension (D(v)), however, did not differ among the treatments. DISCUSSION: D(v) was strongly correlated with the proportion of the <0.002 mm size class of the silt + clay fraction that did not differ significantly among the treatments. The change in the distribution of aggregates was strongly correlated with SOC content, which could produce organic polymer binding agents to increase the proportion of larger particles. Long-term application of organic fertiliser is thus necessary for the improvement and maintenance of soil quality in semi-arid agricultural land when residues are removed. PeerJ Inc. 2018-05-21 /pmc/articles/PMC5967366/ /pubmed/29844955 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4758 Text en ©2018 Zhang et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Environmental Sciences
Zhang, Jiaoyang
Sun, Caili
Liu, Guobin
Xue, Sha
Effects of long-term fertilisation on aggregates and dynamics of soil organic carbon in a semi-arid agro-ecosystem in China
title Effects of long-term fertilisation on aggregates and dynamics of soil organic carbon in a semi-arid agro-ecosystem in China
title_full Effects of long-term fertilisation on aggregates and dynamics of soil organic carbon in a semi-arid agro-ecosystem in China
title_fullStr Effects of long-term fertilisation on aggregates and dynamics of soil organic carbon in a semi-arid agro-ecosystem in China
title_full_unstemmed Effects of long-term fertilisation on aggregates and dynamics of soil organic carbon in a semi-arid agro-ecosystem in China
title_short Effects of long-term fertilisation on aggregates and dynamics of soil organic carbon in a semi-arid agro-ecosystem in China
title_sort effects of long-term fertilisation on aggregates and dynamics of soil organic carbon in a semi-arid agro-ecosystem in china
topic Environmental Sciences
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5967366/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29844955
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4758
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