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. 2015 Dec 8;10(12):e0143835.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0143835. eCollection 2015.

Particulate Organic Matter Affects Soil Nitrogen Mineralization under Two Crop Rotation Systems

Rongyan Bu  1   2 , Jianwei Lu  1   2 , Tao Ren  1   2 , Bo Liu  1   2 , Xiaokun Li  1   2 , Rihuan Cong  1   2
Affiliations

Particulate Organic Matter Affects Soil Nitrogen Mineralization under Two Crop Rotation Systems

Rongyan Bu et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Changes in the quantity and/or quality of soil labile organic matter between and after different types of cultivation system could play a dominant role in soil nitrogen (N) mineralization. The quantity and quality of particulate organic matter (POM) and potentially mineralizable-N (PMN) contents were measured in soils from 16 paired rice-rapeseed (RR)/cotton-rapeseed (CR) rotations sites in Hubei province, central China. Then four paired soils encompassing low (10th percentile), intermediate (25th and 75th percentiles), and high (90th percentile) levels of soil PMN were selected to further study the effects of POM on soil N mineralization by quantifying the net N mineralization in original soils and soils from which POM was removed. Both soil POM carbon (POM-C) and N (POM-N) contents were 45.8% and 55.8% higher under the RR rotation compared to the CR rotation, respectively. The PMN contents were highly correlated with the POM contents. The PMN and microbial biomass N (MBN) contents concurrently and significantly decreased when POM was removed. The reduction rate of PMN was positively correlated with changes in MBN after the removal of POM. The reduction rates of PMN and MBN after POM removal are lower under RR rotations (38.0% and 16.3%, respectively) than CR rotations (45.6% and 19.5%, respectively). Furthermore, infrared spectroscopy indicated that compounds with low-bioavailability accumulated (e.g., aromatic recalcitrant materials) in the soil POM fraction under the RR rotation but not under the CR rotation. The results of the present study demonstrated that POM plays a vital role in soil N mineralization under different rotation systems. The discrepancy between POM content and composition resulting from different crop rotation systems caused differences in N mineralization in soils.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Soil potentially mineralizable N (PMN) contents under the different rotation systems.
Note: RR corresponds to the rice-rapeseed rotation and CR corresponds to the cotton-rapeseed rotation. Sites A, B, C, and D represent the 4 paired soils from which particulate organic matter (POM) was removed to study the effects of POM removal on soil N mineralization.
Fig 2
Fig 2. The relationships between the content of POM-N and PMN.
Note: RR corresponds to the rice-rapeseed rotation, and CR corresponds to the cotton-rapeseed rotation. Bars indicate the standard error of the mean (n = 31).
Fig 3
Fig 3. The effects of POM removal on the soil PMN contents under the different rotation systems.
Note: RR corresponds to the rice-rapeseed rotation, and CR corresponds to the cotton-rapeseed rotation. Bars indicate the standard error of the mean (n = 2).
Fig 4
Fig 4. The relationships between the ratio of POM-N to TN and the reduction rate of PMN after POM-removal.
Note: the hollow open represent the soils from the rice-rapeseed rotation and the solid symbols represent the soils from the cotton-rapeseed rotation. Reduction rate of PMN = (PMNoriginal soil—PMNPOM-removal soil) / PMNoriginal soil × 100.
Fig 5
Fig 5. The relationships between the reduction rates of microbial biomass N (MBN) and PMN after POM-removal.
Note: the open symbols represent the soils from the rice-rapeseed rotation and the solid symbols represent the soils from the cotton-rapeseed rotation. Reduction rate of MBN = (MBNoriginal soil—MBNPOM-removal soil)/MBNoriginal soil × 100; reduction rate of PMN = (PMNoriginal soil—PMNPOM-removal soil) / PMNoriginal soil × 100.
Fig 6
Fig 6. The relationships between the reduction rate of the contribution of MBN to PMN and the reduction rate of PMN content after POM-removal.
Note: the open symbols represent the soils from the rice-rapeseed rotation and the solid symbols represent the soils from the cotton-rapeseed rotation. The contribution of soil MBN to PMN = MBN / PMN; decrease in the rate of contribution of MBN to PMN = (Contribution original soil—Contribution POM-removal soil) / Contribution original soil × 100; Reduction rate of PMN = (PMNoriginal soil—PMNPOM-removal soil) / PMNoriginal soil × 100.
Fig 7
Fig 7. Infrared spectroscopy of soil POM under the different rotation systems.
Note: RR corresponds to the rice-rapeseed rotation, and CR corresponds to the cotton-rapeseed rotation.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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