Combined applications of organic and synthetic nitrogen fertilizers for improving crop yield and reducing reactive nitrogen losses from China's vegetable systems: A meta-analysis.

Effects of nitrogen fertilizer substitution by cow manure on yield, net GHG emissions, carbon and nitrogen footprints in sweet maize farmland in the Pearl River Delta in China

Paddy soils show significant potential of carbon sequestration. The soil organic carbon( SOC) content of red paddy soils have been reported to be steady after 30 years' cultivation and it varies with different fertilization practice. In this study,three red paddy soils,which cultivated under different organic fertilization treatments in a 30 years fertilizer experiment in Changsha, China, was adjusted to the following seven treatments without compromising the original experiment: the original high organic fertilization treatment( HOM),the high organic fertilization treatment changed from the original normal organic fertilization treatment( N-H),the original normal organic fertilization treatment( NOM),the normal organic fertilization treatment changed from chemical fertilization( C-N),the chemical fertilization treatment changed from high organic fertilization treatment( H-C),the chemical fertilization treatment changed from normal organic fertilization treatment( N-C),the original chemical fertilization treatment( CF). CO2 flux of the three original and fourchanged treatments was measured to study the effects of the following-up fertilization reforming on the CO2 flux in red paddy soils with different fertilities in 2012—2013. The results clearly showed that the following-up changing of fertilization had obvious impacts on the dynamics of CO2 flux. The CO2 flux in the soils under long-term organic fertilization treatments decreased after the adjustment from organic fertilization to chemical fertilization. However,the CO2 flux in the soils under long-term chemical fertilization treatments increased remarkably after the adjustment from chemical fertilization to organic fertilization. The results also indicated that both organic fertilizer and soil organic carbon( SOC) had important impacts on CO2 flux. The amount of organic carbon inputted by organic fertilizers had a significantly positive relationship with the total amount of annual CO2-C flux( r = 0.9015**,n = 21),and the inherent SOC content( x) also had a positive relationship with the total amount of annual CO2-C( y)( y = 10. 962x- 68. 86,R2= 0. 7507,n = 9,P 0. 01) in the paddy soils received chemical in 2012. The fertilization reforming from organic fertilization to chemical fertilization would lead to the loss of SOC in paddy soils due to its mineralization,and the SOC loss increased with the rising of inherent SOC content. The SOC content in the paddy soils under long-term organic fertilization would be consistent with that in the paddy soils under long-term chemical fertilization after the fertilization reforming from organic to chemical fertilization for a certain time. The fertilization reforming from chemical to organic fertilization,or from low organic to high organic fertilization would lead to the SOC accumulation in paddy soils,and the accumulating rate of SOC had a positive relationship with the amount of the inputted organic material. Under same organic fertilization treatment,the apparent decomposition rate of organic material applied in the soils with high SOC content was larger than that in the soils with low SOC content,which would result in lower SOC accumulation. So,the paddy soils with different SOC content would have the same SOC level when they received same organic fertilization management for a certain time. As a conclusion,the sustained organic fertilization in red paddy soils with high or low SOC content is essential to maintain or improve the soil organic carbon content in Southern China.

As an important grain production area in China, the Northeast Black Soil Region has experienced many problems, such as soil degradation, fertility decline, and grain yield reduction, in recent years. Optimizing fertilizer management is an important measure to maintain and enhance soil fertility. However, improper fertilizer application could aggravate nutrient losses and greenhouse gas N2O emissions, thus leading to soil degradation and environmental pollution. The objectives of the present study were to investigate the response of N2O emission from black soil to long-term application of organic and chemical fertilizers and the key controlling factors. Soil samples （0-20 cm） were collected from a total of nine treatments, including organic fertilizer as the primary treatment （M0- no organic fertilizer； M1- low organic fertilizer； M2- high organic fertilizer） and chemical fertilizer as the secondary treatment （CK- no fertilizer； N- chemical nitrogen fertilizer； NPK- chemical nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium fertilizer）, in a long-term experiment （32 years） on the black soil of Gongzhuling, Jilin Province. The soil samples were incubated at 25℃ with 65% field water holding capacity for 21 days, and N2O emission and soil physico-chemical biological properties were determined. The results showed that long-term application of organic and chemical fertilizers notably increased N2O emissions from black soil. Compared to those from the M0CK treatment [（0.25±0.01） mg·kg-1, in terms of N, the same as below], the cumulative N2O emissions from the only organic fertilizer treatment significantly increased by 361%-456% [（1.17±0.02） mg·kg-1 and （1.41±0.02） mg·kg-1 for the M1CK and M2CK treatments, respectively]. Furthermore, the N2O emissions strongly increased with increasing organic fertilizer application amounts. Cumulative N2O emissions were significantly higher in the chemical fertilizer treatments by 96%-236% [（0.49±0.01） mg·kg-1 and （0.84±0.03） mg·kg-1 for the M0N and M0NPK treatments, respectively] compared to those in the M0CK treatments. Moreover, the increased N2O emissions due to fertilizers application were significantly larger in the M0NPK relative to M0N treatments. The positive effects of chemical fertilizer application on N2O emission decreased under organic fertilizer amendments （M1 and M2）, indicating that organic fertilizer application alleviated increased N2O emission because of chemical fertilization. The application of organic fertilizers significantly increased bulk soil, aggregate organic carbon （SOC）, total nitrogen （TN）, and soil microbial carbon and nitrogen contents. The application of organic combined with chemical fertilizers further increased SOC and TN contents in bulk soil and aggregates. Pearson correlation and path model analyses showed that the N2O emission was positively correlated with soil carbon and nitrogen fractions and microbial carbon and nitrogen contents among organic and chemical fertilizer treatments. Long-term application of organic and chemical fertilizers strongly regulated N2O emissions via affecting the distribution of carbon and nitrogen contents in soil fractions and changing microbial biomass and substrate availability. In conclusion, the application of organic fertilizers could significantly facilitate N2O emission by increasing the available soil carbon and nitrogen pools as well as microbial carbon and nitrogen contents. The application of organic fertilizers mitigated the positive effects of chemical fertilizers on N2O emissions. Appropriate amounts of organic fertilizers should be used when applying chemical fertilizers, in order to balance the comprehensive effects of fertility improvement with nitrogen loss and greenhouse gas emissions.

The partial substitution of mineral fertilizers with straw in agricultural soils could help to control soil acidification, reduce the risk of eutrophication from agricultural runoff, and increase the utilization efficiency of straw. However, the effects of such coupled practices on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and production yields in vegetable fields are not clear. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to (1) understand methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions in response to the same amounts of straw return with varied amounts of mineral fertilizers, and (2) to identify a solution which could better coordinate GHG emissions, vegetable production yield, and the utilization of agricultural straw following disposal. We conducted four-season (lettuce-cabbage-chili-lettuce) vegetable cultivation for 1 year using a control treatment (CT), mineral fertilization only (F), and four mineral fertilization treatments plus maize straw (FS, 0.7FS, 0.6FS, and 0.5FS). We then examined seasonal changes of CH4 and N2O fluxes, CH4 and N2O cumulative emissions, soil organic carbon (SOC), nitrate nitrogen (NO3−-N) and ammonium nitrogen (NH4+-N) content, vegetable yields, global warming potential (GWP), greenhouse gas intensity (GHGI), and N2O emission factors (EF). Compared to the F treatment, the application of maize straw increased the N2O flux significantly in the FS, 0.7FS, 0.6FS, and 0.5FS treatments. In treatments with added straw, the reduced application of mineral fertilizer led to a reduction in the cumulative N2O emission; this was due to the reduced content of NO3−-N content. The lowest CH4 flux and cumulative CH4 emission were observed in the 0.7FS treatment; this may be due to a form of competitive oxidation between CH4 and NH4+-N from urea. Furthermore, the application of maize straw in combination with a full dose of mineral fertilizers led to high GWP and GHGI values, which showed increases of 88.7% and 78.8%, respectively, in comparison with the F treatment. When taking SOC storage variations into account, which were caused by straw decomposition during cultivation, we identified a negative net GHGI (NGHGI) value (− 0.0448 kg CO2-eq kg−1 yield) in the 0.7FS treatment. This indicated that the NGHGI had decreased by 116.2% relative to the F treatment when based on similar vegetable yields. Straw combined with 70% mineral fertilizer led to better GHG emissions and vegetable yield when taking into account the carbon sequestration and decomposition caused by the addition of straw.

Global impact of enhanced-efficiency fertilizers on vegetable productivity and reactive nitrogen losses

The effects of controlled release urea on maize productivity and reactive nitrogen losses: A meta-analysis

Applying organic fertilizer can increase the contents of soil organic carbon (SOC) and active organic carbon, which are crucial for strengthening soil quality and fertility. Four treatments were established:no fertilization (CK), single application of organic fertilizer (M), single application of chemical fertilizer (NPK), and combined application of organic and inorganic fertilizers (MNPK). The changes in SOC and active components under long-term combined application of organic and inorganic fertilizers were investigated, as were the effects of various fertilization measures on greenhouse gas emissions. Moreover, we evaluated the variation in the soil carbon pool management index (CPMI). Total organic carbon (TOC), microbial biomass carbon (MBC), dissolved organic carbon (DOC), easily oxidized organic carbon (EOC), and particulate organic carbon (POC) increased by 82.84%, 66.30%, 21.12%, 93.28%, and 145.80%, respectively, when compared to those in the CK treatment. The NPK treatment had no discernible effect on SOC and organic carbon components. The combined application of organic and inorganic materials could enhance LI, CPI, and the soil carbon pool management index, with the increase in LI and CPI being the primary reason for the increase in CPMI. Correlation analyses revealed that soil organic carbon components and CPMI were significantly positively correlated with greenhouse gas emissions. The combined application of organic and inorganic materials enhanced cumulative CO2 emissions and warming potential (GWP) but decreased GHGI and yielded a maximum of 56365 kg·hm-2. Compared with that in the CK treatment (29073 kg·hm-2), apple yield in MNPK increased by 93.87%. Therefore, applying organic and inorganic fertilizers in dryland apple orchards can improve the accumulation of organic carbon and stabilize the soil carbon pool, which is more beneficial to the sustainable development of orchards.

The feedbacks between crop yield and soil organic carbon and total nitrogen contents were examined in a long-term experiment, which was established on black loessial soil on the Loess Pla-teau in China. There were six treatments, including CK (no fertilizer), N (single nitrogen fertilizer), NP (chemical fertilizers NP), SNP (straw and chemical fertilizers NP), M (organic manure) and MNP (organic manure and chemical fertilizers NP). Results showed that balanced application of chemical fertilizers, single application of organic manure, the combined application of chemical fertilizers with organic manure and chemical fertilizers coupled with straw returning to the field all significantly increased crop yield and its stability compared with control (CK). The yields of maize and wheat in NP, SNP, M and MNP treatments increased by 92%, 97%, 93%, 141% and 147%, 164%, 139%, 214%, respectively, compared with the control. The annual mean yields of maize and wheat in NP treatment were equal to or higher than those of the local conventional fertilization practices and quite stable among different years, which indicated that the fertilization rates with N 90 kg·hm-2 and P2O5 75 kg·hm-2 were enough for crop growth in wheat-maize rotation system. Application of chemical fertilizer P every other year combined with straw returning to the field (SNP) had similar crop yield values with NP treatment, with the P application amount could be reduced by 50%. The balanced application of chemical fertilizers, organic manure application, the combined application of chemical fertilizers with organic manure, and chemical fertilizers coupled with straw returning to the field could significantly increase soil organic carbon content, whereas chemical fertilizer application had no significant influence on soil total nitrogen content. Across all treatments, the contents of soil organic carbon and total nitrogen were significantly and positively correlated. Under different fertilization treatments, organic carbon sequestration rate was between 15% and 41%. In SNP treatment, the soil organic carbon content enhanced 0.06 g·kg-1 when the amount of organic carbon input every increased 1 t·hm-2, while in CK, N, NP, M and MNP treatments, the increments was between 0.12 and 0.15 g·kg-1. The yields of both maize and wheat were positively correlated with soil total nitrogen content. Maize yield constantly increased with the increases of soil organic carbon content, but wheat yield increased at first and then kept stable with the increases of soil organic carbon content, with a threshold of 6.8 g·kg-1. In conclusion, long-term balanced application of chemical fertilizers, organic manure application, chemical fertilizers combined with manure and chemical fertilizers coupled with straw returning to the field could significantly increase soil organic carbon and total nitrogen contents, consequently resulted in higher crop yield and stubble amount returned to soil, the increase of stubble returned to soil further led to the increase of soil organic carbon and total nitrogen contents, which formed the mutual promotion feedback relationship each other in the black loessial soil region of Loess Plateau in China.

Exploring how methane(CH4), nitrogen dioxide(N2O) and soil organic carbon(SOC) content change under different grassland management is significant for mitigating global warming. We conduct a global meta-analysis to figure out the responses of CH4, N2O and SOC content to different management and Random Forest models are used to explore the most important driving factors of the changes. Our results show that grazing can cause SOC lose except in the climate zone Arid, which can increase the SOC content. The emission of CH4 of grazing grassland increases under all grazing intensities and all climate zones. By comparison, the emission of N2O decreases because of grazing activity except the light grazing intensity. As for fertilizer application, all types of fertilizers lead to more CH4 and N2O emission. Among all the fertilizers，cattle urine leads to the most soil N2O emission and chemical fertilizer causes the most CH4 emission. When adding inhibitors, the mitigation effects are significant. They can decrease CH4 and N2O emission 35% and 25% respectively. As for the variables importance in grassland soil greenhouse gas emission, the results of Random Forest models show that the most three important variables in most models are initial SOC content, mean annual precipitation (MAP) and the mean annual temperature(MAT).This study highlights that moderate grazing is better for nature grazing grassland when considering the comprehensive mitigation effect and removing livestock excrement or adding inhibitors are effective ways to mitigate non-CO2 greenhouse gas emission from soil.

Eight years organic amendment application alters N2O emission potential by increasing soil O2 consumption rate

Soil organic carbon (SOC) in arable topsoil is known to have beneficial effects on soil physical properties that are important for soil fertility. The effects of SOC content on soil aggregate stability have been well documented; however, few studies have investigated its relationship with the soil pore structure, which has a strong influence on water dynamics and biogeochemical cycling. In the present study, we examined the relationships between SOC and clay contents and pore size distributions (PSDs) across an arable field with large spatial variations in topsoil SOC and clay contents by combining X‐ray tomography and measurements of soil water retention. Additionally, we investigated the relationships between fractionated SOC, reactive Fe and Al oxide contents and soil pore structure. We found that porosities in the 0.2–720 μm diameter class were positively correlated with SOC content. A unit increase of SOC content was associated with a relatively large increase in porosity in the 0.2–5 and 480–720 μm diameter classes, which indicates that enhanced SOC content would increase plant available water content and unsaturated hydraulic conductivity. On the other hand, macroporosities (1200–3120 μm diameter classes) and bioporosity were positively correlated with clay content but not with SOC content. Due to strong correlations between soil texture, carbon‐to‐nitrogen ratios and reactive iron contents, we could not separate the relative importance of these soil properties for PSDs. Reactive aluminium and particulate organic carbon contents were poorer predictors for PSDs compared with clay and SOC contents. This study provides new insights on the relations between SOC and soil pore structure in an arable soil and may lead to improved estimations of the effects of enhanced SOC sequestration on soil water dynamics and soil water supply to crops. Highlights Relations between soil organic carbon (SOC) and pore size distribution (PSD) in an arable soil were explored. We used X‐ray tomography and soil water retention to quantify a wide range of PSD. There were positive correlations between SOC and porosities in 0.2–720 μm diameter classes. Porosities in 0.2–5 and 480–720 μm diameter classes were more strongly correlated with SOC than clay. Our results have implications for improved estimates of effects of SOC sequestration on soil water dynamics.

Evaluating microbial role in reducing N2O emission by dual isotopocule mapping following substitution of inorganic fertilizer for organic fertilizer

As a fundamental part of the soil ecosystem, prokaryotes are involved in the preservation of soil functions. However, little is known of how the combined application of long-term organic and inorganic nitrogen fertilizer affects the prokaryotic communities’ dynamics at a paddy field. A long-term positioning experiment initiated in 2013 with four treatments (NO: no N fertilizer, CN: 100% urea N with no organic fertilizer, PM: 80% urea N plus 20% N with pig manure, CM: 80% urea N plus 20% N with compost) were applied to detect the differential responses of soil physicochemical properties, and prokaryotic community structure and composition in different fertilization regimes. The results indicated that the long-term combined application of organic and inorganic nitrogen fertilizers altered the physicochemical properties to some extent and, simultaneously, established unique prokaryotic communities. In detail, the treatment of PM and CM significantly increased the content of soil organic carbon (SOC) and total nitrogen (TN) compared to NO. Moreover, a total of 31 indicator taxa were screened across the four treatments by LDA Effect Size (LEfSe) analysis following the principle of the greatest differences, which suggests that these indicator taxa were more sensitive to the fertilization. This research suggested that the combined application of long-term organic and inorganic nitrogen fertilizers not only contributed to the soil’s physicochemical properties but also changed the prokaryotic community composition.

The net greenhouse gas emissions from upland soils, as indicated by global warming potential (GWP), mainly depend on the soil carbon sequestration and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions. The annual changes in surface (0-20 cm) soil organic carbon (SOC) content from 2010 to 2017 and the N2O emissions from 2014 to 2017 were measured within a long-term fertilization experiment. The objective was to quantify the effect of stalk incorporation on the soil carbon sequestration, annual N2O emissions, and GWP of a winter wheat-summer maize field in the Guanzhong Plain. The field experiment included three treatments:conventional fertilization (CF), conventional fertilization plus maize stalks (CFS), and an unfertilized control (CK). The CF and CFS treatments received the same amount of urea per year, with nitrogen (N) input at 165 kg·hm-2 and 188 kg·hm-2 in the winter wheat season and summer maize season, respectively. The CF treatment retained the stubbles (about 10 cm above ground) when harvesting the winter wheat and summer maize crops. The CFS treatment retained the same wheat stubbles and all maize stalks (containing approximately 40 kg·hm-2 of N). The CK treatment was unfertilized throughout the year, with the stubble management the same as that in the CF treatment. The results showed that the CK treatment displayed few changes in SOC content and low N2O emissions, with GWP varying from 0.04 to 0.11 t·(hm2·a)-1. The SOC contents in the CF and CFS treatments increased linearly with the fertilization years (P<0.001), and their SOC sequestration rates were 0.69 t·(hm2·a)-1 and 0.97 t·(hm2·a)-1, respectively. The N2O emissions from the CF and CFS treatments varied from 1.65 to 5.36 kg·(hm2·a)-1 and from 3.08 to 7.73 kg·(hm2·a)-1, respectively. The annual N2O emissions from the CFS treatment were 43%-94% higher than those from the CF treatment, whereas the difference was only significant between 2015 and 2016 (P<0.05). The GWP of the CF and CFS treatments varied from -1.95 to -0.28 t·(hm2·a)-1 and from -2.59 to -0.35 t·(hm2·a)-1, respectively. The cumulative GWP of the CFS treatment was 42% lower than that of the CF treatment between 2014 and 2017. In summary, the studied winter wheat-summer maize field acted as a sink of greenhouse gases under the conventional fertilization regime. The stalk incorporation further favored greenhouse gas mitigation despite the trade-offs between SOC sequestration and N2O emissions.

&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Legacy data are frequently unique sources of data for the estimation of past soil properties. With the rising concerns about greenhouse gases (GHG) emission and soil degradation due to intensive agriculture and climate change effects, soil organic carbon (SOC) concentration might change heavily over time.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;When SOC changes is estimated with legacy data, the use of soil samples collected in different plots (i.e., non-aligned data) may lead to biased results. The sampling schemes adopted to capture SOC variation usually involve the resampling of the original sample using a so called paired-site approach.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;In the present work, a regional (Sicily, south of Italy) soil database, consisting of N=302 georeferenced soil samples from arable land collected in 1993 [1], was used to select coinciding sites to test a former temporal variation (1993-2008) obtained by a comparison of models built with data sampled in non-coinciding locations [2]. A specific sampling strategy was developed to spot SOC concentration changes from 1994 to 2017 in the same plots at the 0-30 cm soil depth and tested.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;To spot SOC changes the minimum number of samples needed to have a reliable estimate of SOC variation after 23 years has been estimated. By applying an effect size based methodology, 30 out of 302 sites were resampled in 2017 to achieve a power of 80%, and an a=0.05.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;After the collection of the 30 samples, SOC concentration in the newly collected samples was determined in lab using the same method&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;A Wilcoxon test applied to the variation of SOC from 1994 to 2017 suggested that there was not a statistical difference in SOC concentration after 23 years (Z = -0.556; 2-tailed asymptotic significance = 0.578). In particular, only 40% of resampled sites showed a higher (not always significant) SOC concentration than in 2017.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;This finding contrasts with a previous SOC concentration increase that was found in 2008 (75.8% increase when estimated as differences of 2 models built with non-aligned data) [2], when compared to 1994 observed data (Z = -9.119; 2-tailed asymptotic significance &amp;lt; 0.001).&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Such a result implies that the use of legacy data to estimate SOC concentration changes need soil resampling in the same locations to overcome the stochastic model errors. Further experiment is needed to identify the percentage of the sites to resample in order to align two legacy datasets in the same area.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Bibliography&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;[1]Schillaci C, et al.,2019. A simple pipeline for the assessment of legacy soil datasets: An example and test with soil organic carbon from a highly variable area. CATENA.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;[2]Schillaci C, et al., 2017. Spatio-temporal topsoil organic carbon mapping of a semi-arid Mediterranean region: The role of land use, soil texture, topographic indices and the influence of remote sensing data to modelling. Sci Total Environ.&amp;amp;#160;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;