Abstract:
Objective The aims were to investigate the effects of different cropping patterns on soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) contents and the activities of related transforming enzymes. The findings of this study will provide valuable insights for developing suitable cultivation systems.
Method Based on a 26-year long-term located experiment, four rotation cropping patterns were selected for this study: rice monoculture (RM), rice-wheat rotation (RWR), rice-rape rotation (RRR) and rice-green manure rotation (RGR). Soil samples were collected from 0 ~ 20 cm and 20 ~ 40 cm soil layers and soil total organic C, total N, active organic C, N fractions, related transforming enzyme activities were determined. ResultThe results showed that the total organic C (TOC), easily oxidizable organic C (EOC), dissolved organic C (DOC), and microbial biomass C (MBC) in the 0 ~ 20 cm soil layer of the crop rotation treatments were increased by 22.7% ~ 43.1%, 8.3% ~ 77.1%, 38.9% ~ 110.7%, 31.4% ~ 48.1%, and 3.3% ~ 87.1% compared with RM, respectively. The RGR treatment showed the highest increase in TOC and EOC. The RWR treatment showed the highest increase in MBC, and the RRR treatment showed the highest increase in DOC. The rotation treatments significantly increased the contents of various N components in the soil, with the increasing of total N, dissolved total N, available N and microbial biomass N (MBN) in RGR treatment by 31.8%, 94.8%, 24.9% and 51.3% compared with RM treatment, respectively. Additionally, the rotation treatments increased the activities of C and N transformation enzymes in the soil and reduced the relative activities of BG (RBG) and NAG (RNAG). Specifically, the RWR treatment significantly increased the activities of sucrase (SUC), catalase (CAT), β-1,4-glucosidase (BG), urease (URE), and β-N-acetylglucosaminidase (NAG) by 46.3%, 45.2%, 38.0%, 30.9%, and 16.5%, respectively. The rotation treatments in the 20 ~ 40 cm soil layer could increase the nutrient contents of soil carbon and nitrogen, and the activities of C and N transformation enzymes to varying degrees, with the most significant effects on RGR. The content of soil C and N nutrients were significantly positively correlated with SUC, CAT, URE, and negatively correlated with NAG, RBG, and RNAG. MBC was the most important factor affecting soil enzyme activity.
Conclusion Therefore, reasonable rotation with leguminous green manure and crops with high residue content could improve soil C and N nutrient content, activity, and enzyme activity. Among the four crop rotation patterns in this study, the RWR and RGR treatments were the most effective.