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. 2022 Apr 29;12(1):7066.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-11391-6.

Effects of conservation tillage strategies on soil physicochemical indicators and N2O emission under spring wheat monocropping system conditions

Jianyu Yuan  1 , Lijuan Yan  2 , Guang Li  3 , Mahran Sadiq  1   2   4 , Nasir Rahim  4 , Jiangqi Wu  1 , Weiwei Ma  1 , Guorong Xu  1 , Mengyin Du  1
Affiliations

Effects of conservation tillage strategies on soil physicochemical indicators and N2O emission under spring wheat monocropping system conditions

Jianyu Yuan et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

As one of the important greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide (N2O) has attracted much attention globally under climate change context. Agricultural practices are the main sources of greenhouse gas emissions. Nevertheless, scarcity of literature is available on the effects of different tillage measures on soil N2O emission under spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) ecosystem in the semi-arid area of the Loess Plateau. The main objective of the experimental study was to explore the influence of conservation tillage techniques on soil physicochemical properties, nitrous oxide emission and yield in the Northern semi-arid Dingxi region of China. Four treatments viz., conventional tillage (CT), no tillage (NT), straw mulch with conventional tillage (TS) and stubble-return with no-till (NTS) were evaluated under randomized complete block design with three replications. Our results depicted that compared with conventional tillage, bulk density and water content of topsoil was increased and soil pH value was reduced under conservation tillage techniques. Conservation tillage NT, TS and NTS increased organic carbon, TN, MBN and NH4+-N and reduced the accumulation of NO3-N. Additionally, although the N2O emission under NT, TS and NTS was 8.95, 41.90 and 21.05% respectively higher than under T treatment, the corresponding wheat yield was 15.40, 31.97 and 63.21% higher than T treatment. Moreover, correlation analysis showed that soil moisture and temperature were the most significant factors affecting soil N2O emission. The NTS treatment pointedly increased crop yield without significantly increasing soil N2O emission. Consequently, based on economic and environmental benefits and considering N2O emission and crop yield, we suggest that NTS technique is the best conservation tillage strategy in the semi-arid environmental zone of the Loess Plateau of Dingxi China.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The geographical location map of the study area. Apply ArcGIS 10.2 Software production. The basic geographic information data comes from the resource and environmental science and data center (http://www.resdc.cn/).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Temperature of 0–10 cm soil layer under different tillage measures.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Nitrogen content in 0–10 cm soil of spring wheat under different tillage measures. Different lowercase letters indicate significant differences among different treatments (P < 0.05).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Soil N2O emission fluxes under different tillage measures.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Spring wheat yield and total N2O emissions under different tillage measures. Different capital letters indicate that there are significant differences in total N2O emissions under different treatments; Different lowercase letters indicate that there are significant differences in yield under different treatments.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Principal component analysis of N2O emission and physical and chemical properties of soil.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Correlation between N2O emissions and soil physical and chemical properties. T temperature. *Indicates significant at 0.05 level, **indicates significant at 0.01 level, ***indicates significant at 0.001 level.
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