Characteristics of Soil Respiration and Soil Organic Carbon in Fava Bean Farmland Under Ridge Tillage and Straw Mulching in Southwest China

Abstract

Soil respiration is an important process for carbon emission. A field study was conducted with four treatments including T (traditional tillage+straw mulching level 0 kg·hm-2), R (ridge tillage+straw mulching level 0 kg·hm-2), RS1 (ridge tillage+straw mulching level 3750 kg·hm-2), and RS2 (ridge tillage+straw mulching level 7500 kg·hm-2), so as to probe the effects of ridge tillage and straw mulching amount on soil respiration and soil organic carbon(SOC) and the relationships of soil respiration rate with soil temperature and water content (SWC) during the growth period of fava bean in the triple intercropping system of fava bean/maize/sweat pomato in dryland region of southwest China known as the purple hilly region. The changes of soil respiration rate were in accordance with crop growing, being firstly increased and then decreased during the whole growth period of fava bean, and there were significant differences in soil respiration rate among different treatments, which could be ranked as RS2[3.365 g·(m2·d)-1] > RS1[2.935 g·(m2·d)-1] > T[2.683 g·(m2·d)-1] > R[2.263 g·(m2·d)-1]. Ridge tillage reduced soil respiration in fava bean farmland, whereas straw mulching treatment increased it, whose variation trend was in accordance with that of straw mulching levels. There was a significant exponential relationship between soil respiration and soil temperature at 5 cm and 10 cm depth, and the exponential model at 10 cm produced better fitness than that at 5 cm. The temperature sensitivity (Q10) at 10 cm could be ranked as RS2 > RS1 > R > T, being 1.751,1.665,1.616, and 1.35, respectively. The combined exponential model indicated that soil temperature and water content (SWC) could jointly explain 68%(R), 79%(RS1) and 76%(RS2) of variation in soil respiration. This study results suggested that ridge tillage and straw mulching significantly increased SOC of 0-5 cm, 5-10 cm, 10-20 cm and 20-30 cm soil layers, and the increase of SOC was in accordance with that of straw mulching levels. The SOC was significantly increased in 5-10 cm and 10-20 cm soil layers, which could be ranked as RS2 > RS1 > R > T, and the increases in SOC at 5-10 cm were especially notable. The weighted average of particulate organic carbon (POC) at 0-30 cm was significantly increased, but the proportion of POC in SOC did not show significant influence.