Granulated straw incorporation efficiently promotes soil organic carbon pool in subtropical infertile croplands primarily via plant residues accumulation

doi:10.1016/j.jia.2025.07.027

Journal of Integrative Agriculture

2026, Vol. 25

Issue (2): 501-512 DOI: 10.1016/j.jia.2025.07.027

Section 2: Green Crop Production in Subtropical Regions

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Granulated straw incorporation efficiently promotes soil organic carbon pool in subtropical infertile croplands primarily via plant residues accumulation

Jun Wang^{1, 2}, Xun Duan^{1, 3, 4}, Yijun Xu², Kaiwen Deng^{1, 3, 4}, Wei Gao^{1, 3}, Miaomiao Zhang^{1, 3}, Yajun Hu⁵, Shoulong Liu^{1, 3#}, Zhenhua Zhang², Wenju Zhang⁶, Jinshui Wu^{1, 3}, Xiangbi Chen^{1, 3, 4#}

¹Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changsha 410125, China

²College of Resources, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha 410128, China

³Changsha Research Station for Agricultural & Environmental Monitoring, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changsha 410158, China

⁴University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China

⁵College of Agronomy, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha 410125, China

⁶National Engineering Laboratory for Improving Quality of Arable Land, Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China

Highlights
● Massive granulated straw incorporation into infertile croplands effectively enhances soil organic carbon (SOC) pool and crop yield.
● As granulated straw incorporation increases, SOC accumulation efficiency varies from 30.8 to 60.0%.
● SOC increases under granulated straw incorporation primarily originate from plant residues rather than microbial necromass.

Abstract
References

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摘要

贫瘠农田土壤有机碳快速提升依赖高强度有机物料投入，但农作物秸秆极为蓬松，田间难以实现大量深还入土。将粉碎秸秆压缩为致密棒状颗粒能够实现秸秆大量均匀深还入土，秸秆颗粒化还田下土壤有机碳积累效率、最有效增量组分尚不清楚。本研究以亚热带典型贫瘠旱地和稻田土壤为对象，采用田间微区试验，设置0、30、60和90 t ha⁻¹秸秆颗粒投入量梯度，分析一年后土壤中有机碳积累效率及其植物残体碳（生物标识物为木质素酚）和微生物残体碳（生物标识物为氨基糖）积累特征。结果表明：随秸秆颗粒投入量增加，旱地土壤有机碳积累效率保持稳定（30.8–37.5%），而稻田呈下降趋势（从60.0%降至38.3%）。随秸秆颗粒投入量增加，两种土壤中木质素酚对土壤有机碳积累的贡献显著提升，而氨基糖贡献无显著变化，且木质素酚与氨基糖的比值随秸秆颗粒投入强度增加呈线性增加。这表明秸秆颗粒投入下土壤有机碳的快速提升以植物残体为主，而非微生物残体，这主要归因于物理空间隔绝效应限制了土壤微生物对秸秆颗粒内部碳源的摄取和代谢。综合作物产量提升情况，高强度秸秆颗粒化还田是亚热带贫瘠农田土壤快速培肥增碳的有效措施。

Abstract

Rapidly improving infertile croplands and enhancing their soil organic carbon (SOC) pool necessitate substantial organic materials incorporation. Converting loose crop straw into granulated form facilitates uniform incorporation within the plough soil layer. As an innovative soil amelioration approach, the efficiency and patterns of SOC accumulation remain unclear. Two field experiments were conducted in infertile subtropical upland and paddy soils with 0, 30, 60, and 90 Mg ha⁻¹ granulated straw incorporation. After one year, SOC accumulation efficiency from straw input remained stable in upland (30.8–37.5%) with increasing amounts of straw incorporation, while declined from 60.0 to 38.3% in paddy. In both croplands, the contributions of lignin phenols to SOC increased with increasing straw incorporation, while the contributions from amino sugars remained constant at higher straw input levels. Subsequently, the ratios of lignin phenols to amino sugars increased with increasing straw incorporation, indicating faster plant residue accumulation compared to microbial necromass, as the granulation approach limited microbial involvement in straw transformation. Thus, single-time incorporation of substantial granulated straw presents an effective agricultural strategy for rapid amelioration of infertile croplands.

Keywords: SOC accumulation efficiency granulated straw upland and paddy plant residues microbial necromass microbial community

Received: 04 March 2025 Accepted: 09 June 2025 Online: 29 July 2025

Fund:

This work was financially supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2021YFD1901203, 2021YFD1901204), the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDA0440404), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (42377348), the Science Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars of Hunan Province, China (2024JJ2052), and the Natural Science Foundation of Guangxi, China (2025GXNSFAA069337).

About author: #Correspondence Shoulong Liu, Tel: +86-731-84619732, E-mail: along@isa.ac.cn; Xiangbi Chen, E-mail: xbchen@isa.ac.cn

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Jun Wang, Xun Duan, Yijun Xu, Kaiwen Deng, Wei Gao, Miaomiao Zhang, Yajun Hu, Shoulong Liu, Zhenhua Zhang, Wenju Zhang, Jinshui Wu, Xiangbi Chen. 2026. Granulated straw incorporation efficiently promotes soil organic carbon pool in subtropical infertile croplands primarily via plant residues accumulation. Journal of Integrative Agriculture, 25(2): 501-512.

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