Effects of the Rapid Construction of a High-Quality Plough Layer Based on Woody Peat in a Newly Reclaimed Cultivated Land Area

Sicheng Zhang,Kening Wu,Long Kang,Rui Zhao,Qin Huang

doi:10.3390/agriculture12010031

Abstract

To implement the balance system of cultivated land in occupation and supplement and to adhere to the principle of “supplement the occupied cultivated land of high quality with the one bearing same quality”, in the thesis, a field experiment was conducted to study the effects of woody peat on soil physical, chemical, and biological properties of the plough layer and its crop yield. Furthermore, the correlation between soil indexes and crop yield under the best fertilization mode through the addition of the natural material of woody peat instead of lengthy cultivation of the plough layer to rapidly construct a high-quality plough layer and solve the practical problem that the natural endowment of newly reclaimed cultivated land is far less than the occupied high-quality cultivated land was explored. The land remediation project of Fuping County, Hebei Province, was taken as the experimental area, and the five most representative and effective datasets were selected and studied. The results demonstrated that the addition of woody peat and rotten straw could reduce soil particle size and bulk density and alleviate soil viscosity and acidification. An increase in soil organic matter, soil microbial biomass carbon (MBC), alkali-hydrolyzable nitrogen, available phosphorus, and available potassium and a decrease in the heavy metal content were also observed. The results indicated that the application of woody peat achieved the expected effect of the rapid construction of a high-quality plough layer. The best mode of fertilization was A2, which provided a good reference for the rapid construction of a high-quality plough layer in the future. The analysis of the correlation between soil indexes and crop yield illustrated that the organic matter content, soil available nutrients, and crop yield had a significant positive correlation; the organic matter content and soil available nutrients showed the same tendency, which suggests that soil organic matter content and soil fertility level are closely related and that soil fertility plays a decisive role in crop yield under the same external conditions. Woody peat exerted an eminent influence on the organic matter content and soil available nutrients to determine the change in crop yield, which provides a reliable basis for future research on land improvement projects to increase crop yield.

Highlights

The lack of high-quality cultivated land has been recognized as a major problem affecting food security worldwide [1,2]
Qiuxia et al [50] reported “abundant organic matter in woody peat and organic materials featured with excellent pore structure, and to a certain extent, the soil can be diluted through the addition of woody peat and organic materials”; woody peat is able to reduce the soil particle size, improve soil aeration, and contribute to the enhancement of the crop root system and soil microbial activity
Research revealed that the addition of woody peat to soil is beneficial to the rapid growth of fungi and improvements in plant productivity, while the development of roots and hyphae influences soil bulk density [52]

Summary

Introduction

The lack of high-quality cultivated land has been recognized as a major problem affecting food security worldwide [1,2]. In China, there is a focus “supplementing occupied cultivated land of high quality with the soil of the same quality”, but this is often not followed through on. There is poor protection of cultivated land resources, leading to the over-occupation of high-quality fertile land and low soil quality of newly reclaimed cultivated land [3,4,5]. Recent research has focused on determining the characteristics of highquality plough layers for long-term cultivation, proposing the rapid construction of a high-quality plough layer to replace elements needed for long-term cultivation and to improve the quality of cultivated land over a short period of time [9,10,11]. As a new soil improvement material, woody peat, with a carbon content of up to 60–65%, has attracted significant attention, but research is only at a basic stage of determining whether woody peat can promote crops, with few studies on the effects of the addition of woody peat to fertilizers [12,13], which is a research focus [14]

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion