In croplands, the adoption of certain management practices may increase soil organic carbon (SOC) levels. In this study, we evaluated the short-term impact of crop stover management and the interaction between crop stover and irrigation method on SOC change in a continuous maize (Zea mays L.) system in Spain. Four years after the beginning of the experiment, total SOC and C fractions (particulate organic matter carbon, POM-C; and mineral-associated organic matter carbon, Min-C) contents, SOC stocks and SOC stock changes were measured in four different soil layers (0−5, 5−10, 10−25 and 25−50 cm) in an experiment with two irrigation methods (sprinkler and flood) and three stover management systems (conventional tillage with all the stover incorporated, CT; no-tillage maintaining the stover, NTr; and no-tillage removing the stover, NT). Stover management resulted in significant differences in SOC and POM-C but not in Min-C. In particular, NT reduced SOC and POM-C contents compared with CT and NTr (about 10 and 60 %, respectively). After 4 years, SOC change was not affected by the interaction between stover management and irrigation. Concurrently, both CT and NT showed SOC losses, reaching 0.11 and 1.22 Mg ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹ in CT and NT, respectively. However, NTr showed SOC gains at a rate of 0.09 Mg ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹. Consequently, the removal of crop stover has been demonstrated as a detrimental strategy to store SOC in the short-term in irrigated continuous maize systems.

在农田中，采用某些管理措施可能会增加土壤有机碳 (SOC) 水平。在这项研究中，我们评估了作物秸秆管理的短期影响以及作物秸秆和灌溉方法之间的相互作用对连续玉米（Zea maysL.) 系统在西班牙。实验开始四年后，在四种不同的土壤中测量了总 SOC 和 C 部分（颗粒有机质碳，POM-C；和矿物相关有机质碳，Min-C）含量、SOC 储量和 SOC 储量变化层（0-5、5-10、10-25 和 25-50 厘米）在使用两种灌溉方法（喷灌和洪水）和三种秸秆管理系统（常规耕作与所有秸秆结合，CT；免耕）的实验中维护秸秆，NTr；免耕去除秸秆，NT）。秸秆管理导致 SOC 和 POM-C 的显着差异，但不导致 Min-C。特别是，与 CT 和 NTr 相比，NT 降低了 SOC 和 POM-C 含量（分别约为 10% 和 60%）。4 年后，SOC 变化不受秸秆管理和灌溉之间相互作用的影响。^-1 yr ^-1在 CT 和 NT 中，分别。然而，NTr 显示 SOC 以 0.09 Mg ha ^-1 yr ^-1的速率增加。因此，去除作物秸秆已被证明是在连续灌溉玉米系统中短期储存 SOC 的有害策略。