Abstract
Summary The North China Plain (NCP) is an important agricultural area, where conventional tillage (CT) is used year-round. However, long-term CT has damaged the soil structure, threatening agricultural sustainability. Since 2002, we have conducted a long-term tillage experiment in the NCP to explore the effects of different types of tillage on soil and crop yield. As part of long-term conservation tillage, we conducted a 2-year study in 2016/2017 to determine the impact of no tillage (NT), subsoiling (SS), rotary tillage (RT) and CT on soil aggregate distribution, aggregate-associated organic carbon (AOC), aggregate-associated microbial biomass carbon (AMBC), and maize yield. Compared to CT, NT increased the content of macro-aggregates (+4.8%), aggregate-AOC (+8.3%), and aggregate-AMBC (+18.3%), but decreased maize yield (−11.5%). SS increased the contents of macro-aggregates (+5%), aggregate-AOC (+14.7%), and aggregate-AMBC (+16%); although the yield increase was not significant (+0.22%), it had the highest economic benefit among the four tillage measures. RT had no significant advantage when considering the above soil variables; moreover, it reduced maize yield by 16.1% compared with CT. Overall, SS is a suitable tillage measure to improve soil macro-aggregate content, carbon content, yield, and economic benefit in the NCP area.
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Claims 12
Claim · model-written summary
No tillage increased macro-aggregate content by 4.8% versus conventional tillage.
Zea maysOrganisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Compared to CT, NT increased the content of macro-aggregates (+4.8%), aggregate-AOC (+8.3%), and aggregate-AMBC (+18.3%), but decreased maize yield (−11.5%)”
Claim · model-written summary
No tillage increased aggregate-associated organic carbon by 8.3%.
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Compared to CT, NT increased the content of macro-aggregates (+4.8%), aggregate-AOC (+8.3%), and aggregate-AMBC (+18.3%), but decreased maize yield (−11.5%)”
Claim · model-written summary
No tillage increased aggregate-associated microbial biomass carbon by 18.3%.
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Compared to CT, NT increased the content of macro-aggregates (+4.8%), aggregate-AOC (+8.3%), and aggregate-AMBC (+18.3%), but decreased maize yield (−11.5%)”
Claim · model-written summary
No tillage decreased maize yield by 11.5%.
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Compared to CT, NT increased the content of macro-aggregates (+4.8%), aggregate-AOC (+8.3%), and aggregate-AMBC (+18.3%), but decreased maize yield (−11.5%)”
Claim · model-written summary
Subsoiling increased macro-aggregate content by 5%.
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“SS increased the contents of macro-aggregates (+5%), aggregate-AOC (+14.7%), and aggregate-AMBC (+16%)”
t0“maize yield and soil aggregate-associated carbon in North China due to long-term conservation tillage”
Claim · model-written summary
Subsoiling increased aggregate organic carbon by 14.7%.
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“SS increased the contents of macro-aggregates (+5%), aggregate-AOC (+14.7%), and aggregate-AMBC (+16%)”
t0“maize”
Claim · model-written summary
Subsoiling increased aggregate microbial biomass carbon by 16%.
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“SS increased the contents of macro-aggregates (+5%), aggregate-AOC (+14.7%), and aggregate-AMBC (+16%)”
t0“maize”
Claim · model-written summary
Subsoiling yield increase of 0.22% was not significant.
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“SS increased the contents of macro-aggregates (+5%), aggregate-AOC (+14.7%), and aggregate-AMBC (+16%); although the yield increase was not significant (+0.22%)”
t0“maize yield and soil aggregate-associated carbon in North China due to long-term conservation tillage”
Claim · model-written summary
Subsoiling had the highest economic benefit of four tillage measures.
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“SS increased the contents of macro-aggregates (+5%), aggregate-AOC (+14.7%), and aggregate-AMBC (+16%); although the yield increase was not significant (+0.22%), it had the highest economic benefit among the four tillage measures”
t0“maize yield and soil aggregate-associated carbon in North China due to long-term conservation tillage”
Claim · model-written summary
Rotary tillage had no significant advantage for the soil variables.
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“RT had no significant advantage when considering the above soil variables”
t0“maize”
Claim · model-written summary
Rotary tillage reduced maize yield by 16.1% versus conventional tillage.
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“RT had no significant advantage when considering the above soil variables; moreover, it reduced maize yield by 16.1% compared with CT”
t0“maize yield and soil aggregate-associated carbon in North China due to long-term conservation tillage”
Claim · model-written summary
The authors recommend subsoiling for soil aggregates, carbon, yield and economic benefit in the North China Plain.
- Outcome
- suitable tillage measure to improve soil macro-aggregate content, carbon content, yield, and economic benefite0
- Setting
- NCP areae0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“SS is a suitable tillage measure to improve soil macro-aggregate content, carbon content, yield, and economic benefit in the NCP area”
t0“maize”
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