Liu Zihan, Zhao Chenxu, Zhang Nanhai, Wang Jing, Li Zhaoyang, Uwiragiye Yves, Fallah Nyumah, Crowther Thomas W, Huang Yuanyuan, Huang Yuanyuan, Xu Yi, Zhang Sheng, Kuzyakov Yakov, Siddique Kadambot H M, Jia Zhikuan, Cai Zucong, Chang Scott X, Xu Minggang, Müller Christoph, Cheng Yi
School of Geography, Nanjing Normal University, 210023, Nanjing, China.
College of Agronomy, Northwest A&F University, 712100, Yangling, China.
Nat Commun. 2025 May 30;16(1):5029. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-60036-5.
Plastic film mulching (PM), which contributes to nearly half of the increased crop yields in dryland agroecosystems, exacerbates environmental burdens due to its non-degradable nature. Globally, there is a growing demand to replace non-degradable PM with degradable film mulching (DM), yet its impacts on soil organic carbon (SOC) in dryland agroecosystems remains unknown. Here, using multi-field studies and mesocosm experiments, we found that DM strongly increased but PM reduced SOC storage (0-1 m). This difference is likely attributable to the higher microbial C use efficiency in soil under DM, leading to increased microbial-derived C compared to PM. Under the high roading scenario for 2100, DM could reduce the decomposition of SOC (0-1 m) in China's drylands by 9.0 ± 1.0 Mg ha year (one standard error) compared with PM. Our findings highlight that DM is a promising alternative to PM for sequestrating SOC and alleviating C loss under climate change in dryland agroecosystems.
地膜覆盖（PM）在旱地农业生态系统中对作物增产的贡献近半，但因其不可降解的特性加剧了环境负担。在全球范围内，用可降解地膜覆盖（DM）替代不可降解的PM的需求日益增长，但其对旱地农业生态系统土壤有机碳（SOC）的影响仍不明确。在此，通过多地点研究和中宇宙实验，我们发现DM显著增加了但PM减少了SOC储量（0至1米）。这种差异可能归因于DM条件下土壤中微生物碳利用效率更高，导致与PM相比微生物源碳增加。在2100年的高排放情景下，与PM相比，DM在中国旱地可使SOC（0至1米）的分解每年减少9.0±1.0公吨/公顷（一个标准误差）。我们的研究结果突出表明，在旱地农业生态系统气候变化下，DM是用于封存SOC和减轻碳损失的PM的一个有前景的替代方案。
