Effects of maize residue decomposition on aggregate composition and organic carbon distribution of different fertilities Brown soils

Soil aggregate and organic carbon are two major indices for assessing soil fertility. Besides, crop residue return is an effective agricultural way to supplement soil carbon pool and promote soil aggregate formation. However, how soil fertility level and residue type affect soil aggregate stability and organic carbon distribution is not clearly understood yet. In this study, a field incubation experiment was carried out by adding maize (Zea mays L.) root or stem and leaf to brown soil of different fertility levels. The samples of low fertility (LF) and high fertility (HF) soils were collected from a long-term (29 years) fertilization experiment. Six treatments were set, which were low fertility soil with maize root (LF+R), low fertility soil with maize stem and leaf (LF+S), high fertility soil with maize root (HF+R), high fertility soil with maize stem and leaf (HF+S), low or high fertility soil without maize residues (LF or HF). The objective of the study was to explore the dynamics of soil aggregate composition and allocation of organic carbon after residue incorporation. The study could have significant implications for developing residue management and reduce soil erosion in agro-ecosystems. The results showed that soil fertility significantly affected aggregates composition and organic carbon allocation of soil with crop residue incorporation. The addition of maize residue increased mean weight diameter, geometric mean diameter of soil aggregates and contribution rate of organic carbon in larger aggregates (> 2 mm and 1-2 mm) in LF soil compared to those in HF soil. The results suggested that LF soil was more sensitive to organic matter input and had a rapid rate of transformation to macro-aggregate. 2) At the end of experiment, the addition of maize stem and leaf to HF soil had a more pronounced effect on soil aggregate stability compared to the addition of root. Then the addition of root had a more pronounced effect on organic carbon content in soil aggregates than the addition of stem and leaf. However, there was no significant difference between soil aggregate stability and organic carbon content in LF soil aggregate supplemented with different maize parts. The results further suggested that soil fertility level could change the effects of different parts of crop residues addition on soil aggregate stability and organic carbon distribution. 3) The proportion of > 2 mm, 1-2 mm aggregates and soil aggregate stability sharply increased during the first 360 days. This then tended to stable during the later incubation period of 360-720 days. This indicated that the effect of maize residue on the formation of soil aggregate gradually weakened with time. It was concluded that the effects of maize residue addition on soil aggregates composition and organic carbon distribution were dependent on both soil fertility and residue part. Besides, crop residue addition had more obvious effect on improving the structure and stability of aggregates in LF soils.