ICAR Research Complex for North Eastern Hill Region, Tripura Centre, Lembucherra, Tripura, 799210, India.
Division of Agronomy, ICAR- Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, 110012, India.
J Environ Manage. 2022 Sep 15;318:115603. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.115603. Epub 2022 Jun 24.
Soil carbon (C) loss is the prime sign of land degradation, and C pools have a great impact on soil quality and climate change mitigation. Hence, a field experiment was conducted for three consecutive years to assess the impact of crop intensification and conservation tillage practices on changes in the C pool at different soil depths of marginal land of the Indian Himalayas. The experiment consisted of two intensified cropping systems viz., CS1-Summer maize (Zea mays L.) -rainy season maize-lentil (Lens esculenta L.) and CS2-Summer maize-rainy season maize-mustard (Brassica juncea (L.) Czern) and five tillage practices viz., No-till (NT); NT + live mulch of cowpea (NT + LMC); reduced tillage (RT); RT + LMC and conventional tillage (CT). Results revealed that CS2 produced significantly higher biomass, C retention efficiency (9.85%), and sequestrated greater C (0.42 Mg ha yr) in the soil system than CS1. Of the various tillage practices, RT + LMC registered higher biomass and recycled greater biomass and C than those under other tillage practices. However, the highest soil organic carbon (SOC) content (7.03 g kg) and pool (9.62 Mg ha) in 0-10 cm depth were observed under NT + LMC. The non-labile C pool size under NT in 0-10 cm and 10-20 cm depths was significantly greater than those under CT. The NT + LMC sequestrated significantly higher SOC (0.57 Mg ha yr) than other tillage practices. Thus, the study indicated that the adoption of an intensified maize-based system under RT + LMC or NT + LMC would increase SOC storage and C sequestration in marginal lands of the Indian Himalayas.
土壤碳（C）损失是土地退化的主要标志，C 库对土壤质量和气候变化缓解有重大影响。因此，进行了一项为期三年的田间试验，以评估作物集约化和保护性耕作实践对印度喜马拉雅地区边缘土地不同土壤深度 C 库变化的影响。该试验包括两种集约化种植系统，即 CS1-夏季玉米（Zea mays L.）-雨季玉米-扁豆（Lens esculenta L.）和 CS2-夏季玉米-雨季玉米-芥菜（Brassica juncea (L.) Czern），以及五种耕作实践，即免耕（NT）；NT+豇豆绿肥（NT+LMC）；少耕（RT）；RT+LMC 和常规耕作（CT）。结果表明，CS2 产生的生物量、C 保留效率（9.85%）和固存的 C 量（0.42 Mg ha yr）明显高于 CS1。在各种耕作实践中，RT+LMC 登记的生物量较高，循环利用的生物量和 C 量也高于其他耕作实践。然而，在 0-10 cm 深度下，NT+LMC 下的土壤有机碳（SOC）含量（7.03 g kg）和库（9.62 Mg ha）最高。NT 在 0-10 cm 和 10-20 cm 深度下的非易失性 C 库大小明显大于 CT。NT+LMC 显著增加了 SOC（0.57 Mg ha yr）的固存，高于其他耕作实践。因此，该研究表明，在 RT+LMC 或 NT+LMC 下采用强化基于玉米的系统将增加印度喜马拉雅地区边缘土地的 SOC 储存和 C 固存。
