Deep return of straw improves topsoil health and maize productivity more efficiently than shallow return

作者：Jin Li, Xinxin Jin, Jiaqi Li, Xiaoyu Li, Yanyu Han, Lili Dong, Hongtao Zou · 发表于：Soil Use and Management · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.1111/sum.13131 · 被引用次数：8 · 研究领域：Crop Yield and Soil Fertility、Agronomic Practices and Intercropping Systems、Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics

Abstract Straw return is an important nature‐based solution to identify optimal management practices to maintain cropland soil health and food security. However, there is still limited information available regarding the impacts of different straw return strategies on soil health, especially when considering a comprehensive assessment of soil physical, chemical and biological characteristics. Soil microorganisms are the core and key to maintaining soil health. The present research aims to determine the impact of straw return to different depths on soil health index (SHI) and crop productivity across different soil layers. We conducted a 3–year field experiment with four treatments: a blank control with no straw return (NR), straw return treatments with shallow return (SR), mulch return (MR) and deep return (DR), and the straw application rate was 10,500 kg/ha. The results showed that it was the microbial indicators that dominated the effects on soil health, rather than soil organic carbon (SOC). Specifically, we found that the SR treatment exhibited the highest extracellular enzyme activities of both hydrolases and oxidases in the subsoil, and the peroxidase (PEO) activity was 758.99 nmol/g/h. In addition, compared with MR and DR treatments, the abundance of symbiotroph fungi in SR treatment increased by 78.41% and 54.38%, releasing more nutrients to the soil. Hence, SR treatment increased SHI mainly by increasing the PEO activity and NO 3 − –N content, and SR treatment signi...