Abstract:
In order to accurately evaluate the effect of straw partial substituting chemical nitrogen fertilizer on the formation of soil water-stable aggregates and the distributions of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) in black soil, achieving the goal of reducing fertilizer application and increasing fertilizer efficiency, a field trial was adopted at the total N applying amount of 240 kg hm
−2 with 6 treatments of no straw and chemical N fertilizer, chemical N fertilizer alone, and 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% of straw return combined with correspondingly reduced chemical N fertilizer. The surface soil was collected to measure the composition of soil water-stable aggregates and their associated C and N concentrations, analyze the stability of aggregates and their storages of C and N after 5 applications of straw and fertilizer during 5 years of planting spring corn. The results showed that the treatments of straw return combined with chemical N fertilizer promoted the formation of macro aggregates, increased the contents of C and N in different aggregates fractions and total soil organic C storage relative to the treatment of chemical N fertilizer alone. But it had no significant effect on soil total N storage. Compared with 25% of straw return treatment, the treatments with more than 75% of straw return increased the aggregates contents of LM (> 2 mm) by 1.28% ~ 2.36% and that of cPOM (> 0.25 mm) by 3.63% ~ 4.76%, while decreased that of m (0.053 ~ 0.25 mm) and Msc (< 0.053 mm) by 2.29% ~ 3.08% and by 3.95% ~ 5.40%, respectively. Moreover, they also increased MWD by 6.57% ~ 9.28%. Although there was a significantly positive relationship between straw return amount and the contents of C and N in each aggregate fraction (except s + c), only the C and N storages of LM, mM, cPOM and the C storage of SM were significantly positive with straw return amount when considering the effect of aggregate composition. Whereas, the C and N storages in Msc were negatively correlated with straw return amount. Additionally, the C and N ratios in SM, cPOM and mM were not significantly improved when the straw return amount was less than 75%. In general, at total N applying rate of 240 kg hm
−2, the combined application of 75% straw (10800 kg hm
−2)and 186 kg hm
−2 chemical N fertilizer significantly improved the stability of soil aggregates and the storage of organic C and total N, compared with chemical N fertilizer alone or 25% straw combined with reduced amount of chemical N fertilizer, and reduced the applying amount of N fertilizer by 22.5% relative to the treatment of N fertilizer alone.