SOC supports soil fertility, nutrient cycling, water retention, aggregate formation, and climate-change mitigation. However, albic soils typically have high bulk density, restricted aeration, low porosity, and limited organic matter, all of which constrain carbon accumulation and crop productivity. Conventional intensive tillage may accelerate organic-carbon decomposition and disrupt protective soil aggregates, while no-tillage can preserve aggregates but may not adequately relieve subsoil compaction. Returning straw and applying microbial fertilizers could improve carbon inputs and biological activity, yet their effects depend on tillage intensity, fertilizer rate, and soil depth. Few field studies have directly compared these interacting factors in albic cropland.
A study (DOI: 10.48130/aee-0026-0013) published in Agricultural Ecology and Environment on 28 May 2026 by Wei Fan's & Hongguang Cai's team, Jilin Academy of Agricultural Sciences, reports that reduced soil disturbance combined with straw retention and sufficient microbial organic fertilizer produced the strongest whole-profile SOC improvement, whereas plough tillage increased subsoil carbon but weakened macroaggregate stability.
The researchers conducted a one-year field experiment from 2023 to 2024 in maize-growing albic soil in Shulan, Jilin Province. They used a two-factor split-plot design combining three tillage practices—no-tillage, plough tillage, and rotary tillage—with microbial organic fertilizer applied at 600, 1,200, or 2,400 kg per hectare. Additional treatments received straw alone, while no-tillage without straw return served as the control. The fertilizer, produced from composted livestock and poultry manure, contained Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, and Trichoderma harzianum. Under no-tillage, straw and fertilizer remained as surface mulch; ploughing incorporated them to 40 cm, while rotary tillage mixed them into the upper 15 cm. After the maize harvest, the team sampled soil at depths of 0–20 and 20–40 cm. They measured SOC, microbial biomass carbon, bulk density, porosity, pH, nutrients, aggregate-size distribution, aggregate-associated carbon, and the activities of four carbon-cycling enzymes: α-glucosidase, β-glucosidase, cellobiohydrolase, and endo-1,4-β-xylanase. The highest topsoil SOC concentration occurred under no-tillage with the highest fertilizer rate, reaching 14.57 g kg⁻¹—22.0% above the no-tillage control. In the subsoil, the same treatment reached 8.75 g kg⁻¹, representing a 93.2% increase. No-tillage generally maintained the greatest proportion and stability of macroaggregates, which can physically protect organic carbon from decomposition. Plough tillage relieved compaction and favored subsoil SOC accumulation, but it frequently reduced macroaggregate stability, revealing a trade-off between deeper carbon gains and structural protection. Rotary tillage lowered topsoil bulk density and stimulated several enzyme activities, yet stronger decomposition-related activity did not consistently produce greater SOC accumulation. Correlation-network analysis further showed that topsoil SOC was closely associated with microbial indicators and aggregate properties, whereas subsoil SOC was more strongly shaped by physicochemical constraints.
Overall, the study demonstrates that tillage and microbial organic fertilizer should be managed as an integrated system rather than as separate interventions. No-tillage with straw retention and high microbial fertilizer input showed the greatest short-term potential to increase SOC throughout the 0–40 cm soil profile while maintaining aggregate protection. However, because the experiment lasted only one year and did not track the persistence or activity of individual microbial strains, the researchers recommend longer-term monitoring, microbial inoculant tracing, and detailed carbon-fraction analysis to determine whether the observed gains remain stable over time.
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References
DOI
10.48130/aee-0026-0013
Original Source URL
https://doi.org/10.48130/aee-0026-0013
Funding information
This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2023YFD1501100), the Natural Science Foundation of Jilin Province, China (Grant No. 20220301018NY), and the 7th Batch of Jilin Province's Project to Support Young Science and Technology Talents (Grant No. QT202318).
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Agricultural Ecology and Environment (e-ISSN 3070-0639) is a multidisciplinary platform for communicating advances in fundamental and applied research on the agroecological environment, focusing on the interactions between agroecosystems and the environment. It is dedicated to advancing the understanding of the complex interactions between agricultural practices and ecological systems. The journal aims to provide a comprehensive and cutting-edge forum for researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and stakeholders from diverse fields such as agronomy, ecology, environmental science, soil science, and sustainable development.