Change of soil productivity in three different soils after long-term field fertilization treatments

Authors: LIU, KAILOU - Chinese Academy Of Agricultural Sciences; HAN, TIAN-FU - Chinese Academy Of Agricultural Sciences; HUANG, JING - Chinese Academy Of Agricultural Sciences; ZHANG, SHUI-QING - Henan Academy Of Agricultural Science; GAO, HONG-JUN - Jilin Agricultural University; ZHANG, LU - Chinese Academy Of Agricultural Sciences; SHAH, ASAD - Chinese Academy Of Agricultural Sciences; HUANG, SHAO-MIN - Henan Academy Of Agricultural Science; ZHU, PING - Jilin Agricultural University; Gao, Suduan; MA, CHANG-BAO - Ministry Of Agriculture - China; XUE, YAN-DONG - Ministry Of Agriculture - China; ZHANG, HUIMIIN - Chinese Academy Of Agricultural Sciences

Submitted to: Journal of Integrative Agriculture
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/20/2019
Publication Date: 3/1/2020
Citation: Liu, K., Han, T., Huang, J., Zhang, S., Gao, H., Zhang, L., Shah, A., Huang, S., Zhu, P., Gao, S., Ma, C., Xue, Y., Zhang, H. 2020. Change of soil productivity in three different soils after long-term field fertilization treatments. Journal of Integrative Agriculture. 19(3):848-858. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2095-3119(19)62742-5.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S2095-3119(19)62742-5

Interpretive Summary: Evaluation of changes in basic soil productivity (BSP) from long-term fertilization experiments is important to determine effective nutrient management strategies. However, there are difficulties in obtaining proper evaluation about the changes because of the use of nutrient-depleted controls and excess or residual nutrients in fertilized treatments. To solve the problem, this research utilized pot-experiments to estimate a reliable BSP for soils after various long-term field fertilization treatments by growing crops consecutively for up to three years or six growing seasons. A stable BSP was achieved after about three cropping seasons. The highest BSP was from soils with manure incorporation, which confirmed the long-term benefits of manure to improve soil productivity.

Technical Abstract: Basic soil productivity (BSP) is an important indicator for the capacity of a soil to produce crop yield. However, there have been difficulties in estimating BSPs for soils after various long-term field treatments because non-treated control is used but becomes depleted in soil nutrients which lead to erroneous estimates. The objectives of this study were to improve the method to estimate BSPs using pot experiments, and evaluate the BSPs after various long-term fertilization treatments in soils at different geographical locations. The pot experiments were conducted in three research sites with paddy, fluvo-aquic, and black soils. Soils were collected after long-term fertilization treatments of no fertilizer (CK), chemical fertilizer (NPK), and combined chemical fertilizer with manure (NPKM). The soils received either none (F0) or sufficient fertilizer (F1) to grow crops for 3-6 cropping seasons in pots. The yield data were used to calculate BSPs that were compared with field data. A stable BSP was achieved after about three cropping seasons for most treatments in all soils. The BSPs from the long-term CK, NPK and NPKM treatments were 37.7%, 44.1% and 50.0% in the paddy soil, 34.2%, 38.1% and 50.0% in the fluvo-aquic soil, and 23.7%, 29.3% and 48.6% in the black soil, respectively, with the highest from the NPKM treatment for all soils. Multiple regressions showed that soil organic carbon/total nitrogen (C/N) ratio and total phosphorus (TP) were significant factors contributing to the BSPs (p<0.05). This research has confirmed the significance of incorporation of manure as organic fertilizer, due to the increase in SOC and TP contents to sustain soil productivity.