Shallow-incorporated straw returning further improves rainfed maize productivity, profitability and soil carbon turnover on the basis of plastic film mulching

作者：Wesly Kiprotich Cheruiyot, Shuang‐Guo Zhu, Sylvia Ngaira Indoshi, Wei Wang, Ai‐Tian Ren, Zheng‐Guo Cheng, Ze‐Ying Zhao, Jinlin Zhang, Jun‐Sheng Lu, Xucheng Zhang, Alex Ndolo Munyasya, Ling Zhao, Kiprotich Koskei, Mingsheng Ma, David Mwehia Mburu, Aggrey Bernard Nyende, You‐Cai Xiong · 发表于：Agricultural Water Management · 年份：2023 · DOI：10.1016/j.agwat.2023.108535 · 被引用次数：23 · 研究领域：Irrigation Practices and Water Management、Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics、Agronomic Practices and Intercropping Systems

Ridge and furrow plastic film mulching (RFM) has improved net primary productivity (NPP) to a high level in semi-arid rainfed agricultural regions. Yet, it is unclear whether there is still a room for further improvement on NPP while stabilizing soil organic carbon through returning previous maize stover pieces. To address this issue, maize stubbles were smashed into pieces and in situ ploughed into 30 cm topsoil at a semi-arid site in northwest China from 2016 to 2017. This was done using the Pioneer 335 maize variety with three treatments (CK, ridge and furrow without mulching; RFM, ridge and furrow with plastic mulching; RFML, 3.49 t ha−1 of maize stover returning in RFM; RFMH, 5.24 t ha−1 of returning in RFM). The results indicated that maize stover returning exhibited similar trend as RFM at early cool seedling stage, raising the topsoil temperature. However, in warm and dry silking stage (2017), both stover returning rates reduced soil temperatures by 1.33 and 0.8 ◦C relative to RFM and CK (P < 0.05), respectively. The soil water storage increased significantly in RFMH by 17.3% and RFML by 28.5% relative to that of RFM, in a warm and dry growing season (2017). Critically, stover returning increased (P < 0.05) soil organic carbon and light fraction organic carbon turnover across the two growing seasons. By improving hydrothermal conditions, stover returning in RFM increased biomass accumulation and grain yield (P < 0.05), leading to higher (P < 0.05) net economic benefit...