Soil organic matter pools response to perennial grain cropping and nitrogen fertilizer

Abstract

Carbon sequestration in agricultural soils can play a pivotal role in the mitigation of accelerating climate change. Our research evaluated a continuum of agricultural cropping systems, including innovative perennial grain cropping, to assess which systems promote increases in and stabilization of soil organic matter (SOM). In comparison with conventional annual cropping systems, perennial grain cropping may be conducive to increased C accrual resulting from no-tillage management, longer growing seasons, and extensive root growth associated with these novel systems. Furthermore, the effects of N fertilizer addition on SOM dynamics under contrasting cropping systems were examined. We conducted physical SOM fractionation into particulate (POM) and mineral-associated organic matter (MAOM) in samples taken over two years from two experimental sites in Central Alberta, Canada. Five contrasting cropping systems (perennial-forage, perennial-grain, fall-grain, spring-grain and fallow) both with and without N fertilizer were tested. Our findings demonstrate that perennial-grain cropping was consistently superior in sequestering SOM-C compared to annual-grain crops at the surface soil layer (0–15 cm depth, Ps< 0.05). Over the duration of this experiment, perennial-grain cropping considerably boosted C accumulation in the recalcitrant SOM pools as represented by increasing MAOM, particularly at the Edmonton site, which is characterized by a clay-rich, Black Chernozemic soil (MAOM: 41.5 and 45.3 g C kg−1 in annual and perennial crops, respectively, P < 0.05). However, recurrent N fertilizer additions diminished C sequestration by perennial-grain cropping in both POM and MAOM fractions (Ps< 0.05). Correlation analysis indicated that accrual and allocation of C within the soil profile was more closely related to aboveground crop biomass productivity as opposed to root growth, particularly for generating more intermediate-labile POM. Our results shed light on how to achieve greater soil C sequestration as a function of cropping system options, N fertilizer addition and underlying soil texture.