Crop residue decomposition and nutrient release are independently affected by nitrogen fertilization, plastic film mulching, and residue type

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Highlights

  • Decomposition was retarded by low N addition but unchanged under high N input.

  • Lower P status explained the retarded decomposition at low N level.

  • N fertilization decreased N release but did not change P release.

  • Plastic film mulching (PFM) enhanced residue decomposition by 10%.

  • No interactive effects on residue decomposition between N fertilization and PFM.

Abstract

The return of crop residues to the soil is a common agricultural management practice for nutrient recycling and carbon sequestration. It is known that nitrogen (N) fertilization can influence crop residue decomposition and nutrient release. However, it is unclear whether the effect of N fertilization interact with plastic film mulching (PFM) or residue type. We conducted a two-year field study to quantify the main and interactive effects among N fertilization (including no input (N0), 135 kg N ha−1 yr−1 (N135), and 270 kg N ha−1 yr−1 (N270)), PFM (with and without mulching) and residue type (roots, stems, and leaves) on the decomposition and nutrient releases of crop residues in a long-term field experiment with combined mulching and fertilization treatments. We did not observe any interactive effects among N fertilization, plastic film mulching and residue type on crop residue decomposition and nutrient releases. Crop residue decomposition was delayed at N135 but remained unchanged at N270 when compared to N0. The positive correlation between decomposition and soil available phosphorus (P) suggest that soil P status played an important role for crop residue decomposition. The two levels of N fertilization both slowed down N release from crop residues, but did not change P release. PFM accelerated crop residue decomposition by 10% in the first growing season but did not affect the release of N and P. Decomposition and N release rates were higher for leaves than for roots and stems. Overall, this study highlights the independent effects of cropland management on the fate of crop residue returned to soil.

Introduction

Decomposition of plant litter releases nutrients (e.g., nitrogen and phosphorus) for soil organisms and plant growth. In turn, nutrient status in the soil controls microbial activity, thereby influencing the decomposition and nutrient release from plant residues (Craine et al., 2007). In agroecosystems, the return of crop residues to cropland is an inexpensive agricultural management practice but vital for sustainable agriculture (Liu et al., 2014). Crop residues are not only a critical source of soil organic matter formation (Kumar and Goh, 1999), but also provide mineral nutrients supporting crop growth. The rate of crop residue decomposition is linked with soil nutrient supply and carbon (C) sequestration, and can influence many follow-up agricultural operations, e.g., tillage, sowing, and pest management (Li et al., 2018). Accordingly, it is vital to understand the pattern of decomposition and nutrient release after crop residue returning to the field.

As one of the most ubiquitous agricultural management practices, mineral nitrogen (N) fertilization dramatically changes the status of soil nutrients for microbial demand (Xiao et al., 2018), thereby affecting the decomposition of crop residues. N fertilization would retard the decomposition and N release from crop residues, when soil N enrichment satisfies the microbial N demand and thereby decreases the need for microbes to decompose crop residue for obtaining N (Nottingham et al., 2015, Feng and Zhu, 2021). Furthermore, N fertilization can induce soil phosphorus (P) limitation, and most long-term N fertilization experiments show evidence of P limitation for plants or soil microorganisms (Harrington et al., 2001, Shen et al., 2004, Pinsonneault et al., 2016, Ding et al., 2019). If the P deficiency limits the growth of microorganisms (Hobbie and Vitousek, 2000, Cui et al., 2018), this would further inhibit crop residue decomposition. The rate of N release would keep pace with the decomposition, as C and N are stabilized together and mineralized through biological mineralization (McGill and Cole, 1981). Whereas, organic P is stabilized independently of the main organic moiety and is mineralized through biochemical mineralization, which is independent with the process of decomposition and N release (McGill and Cole, 1981). Accordingly, P release from crop residue could be less affected by N fertilization than N release.

Plastic film mulching (PFM) is an agricultural practice that protects crops from low temperature, drought, and weeds (Kasirajan and Ngouajio, 2012). Reports have indicated that PFM can enhance crop residue decomposition due to its soil warming effect (Jin et al., 2018, Wang et al., 2019). However, it is unclear whether the effects of PFM on crop residue decomposition interact with N fertilization, i.e., whether N fertilization effects depend on PFM, or vice versa. Our previous study observed that N fertilization increased root biomass and soil organic C and total N only with PFM, as PFM retains more of the N fertilizer within soil under the plastic mulch (Ding et al., 2022). As soil N status determines microbial N demand and the need for microbes to decompose crop residue for obtaining N, the different responses of soil N to N fertilization with and without PFM would likely lead to similar different responses of decomposition of crop residue.

Moreover, it is unclear whether the effects of N fertilization on crop residue decomposition interact with residue type. Crop residues include roots, stems, and leaves, and it is well known that these components have different decomposition rates (Abiven et al., 2005, Xu et al., 2019, Berenstecher et al., 2021). In general, leaves decompose readily due to their relatively high cellulose and low lignin content (Abiven et al., 2005). In contrast, stems and roots have larger amounts of lignin and decay less readily than leaves (Abiven et al., 2005, Freschet et al., 2013). Previous studies that the decomposition of low and high lignin plant tissues have contrasting response to external N addition (Carreiro et al., 2000, Sinsabaugh et al., 2002, Knorr et al., 2005). Accordingly, the decomposition of leaves may have different responses to N fertilization with stems and roots residues.

In this study, we conducted a two-year field study on the decomposition of maize residue (roots, stems, leaves) using the litterbag method in a long-term N fertilization and PFM experiment. The aim was to determine the main and interactive effects among PFM, N fertilization, residue type on the decomposition and nutrient release from crop residues. We tested the following three hypotheses: (i) N fertilization would retard litter decomposition and N release from crop residues, but would have less effect on P release; (ii) the effect of N fertilization on decomposition would vary with and without PFM; (iii) the effect of N fertilization on decomposition would interact with the type of crop residues, where maize leaves decomposition would have different responses to N fertilization with stems and roots residues.

Section snippets

Study site and experimental design

The study was conducted in a long-term PFM and fertilizer field experiment initiated in 1987 in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, China (41°49′N, 123°34′E). Mean monthly precipitation and mean monthly temperature of the study site in 2015 and 2016 were shown in Fig. S1. The crop is monoculture maize with traditional ridge-tillage and a growing season from May to October. The soil is classified as a Hapli-Udic Alfisol (Soil Survey Staff, 1999). The top soil (0–20 cm) is classified as silt loam, with

Soil available nitrogen and phosphorus

N fertilization significantly altered available N and P concentrations in soil (Fig. 1a, b). Soil available N concentrations increased following N fertilization, particularly at the highest level (N270). Soil available P concentration was lower in N135 treatment compared to N0 and N270 treatments (p = 0.007). PFM increased available N and P concentrations across the N fertilization treatment (p < 0.01), but where PFM particularly increased available N at high N fertilization levels (N * PFM

Discussion

We did not observe any interactive effects among N fertilization, plastic film mulching, and residue type on the decomposition and nutrient release (all p > 0.05, Table 2, Table 3), indicating that the three factors independently affected the dynamics of crop residues. Supporting our first hypothesis, N fertilization retarded N release from crop residues, but had less effect on P release (Fig. 3 and Table 3). However, the retardation of decomposition by N fertilization only occurred in N135

Conclusions

This study demonstrates that crop residue decomposition and nutrient release are independently affected by N fertilization, plastic film mulching, and residue type. Crop residue decomposition was retarded by low N fertilization (N135), but was not affected by high N fertilization (N270), compared to N0. Both low and high N fertilizer rates slowed down N release from crop residues, but did not change P release, as compared to no fertilizer. Plastic film mulching promoted crop residue

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Dechang Ji: Investigation, Formal analysis, Writing − original draft preparation. Fan Ding: Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal analysis, Visualization, Writing − review & editing. Feike A. Dijkstra: Writing − review & editing. Zhaojie Jia: Investigation. Shuangyi Li: Methodology. Jingkuan Wang: Supervision.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgments

This study was funded by the National Science Foundation of China, China (42071069), the the UKRI Global Challenges Research Fund, UK (NE/V005871/1), and the National Science Foundation of China, China (41771328). We thank Siwei Zhang, Jinhao Zhang, Yani Zhao, Qi Meng, Xiaoqing Yu, Xuexin Wang, Dr. Xiumei Zhan, and Mingxuan Li at Shenyang Agricultural University for field assistance and laboratory analyses. We thank Dr. Weidong Zhang and Dr. Guigang Lin from the Institute of Applied Ecology,

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