Long-Term Effect of No-Tillage on Soil Organic Carbon Fractions in a Continuous Maize Cropping System of Northeast China

Increasing evidence has shown that conservation tillage is an effective agricultural practice to increase carbon （C） sequestration in soils. In order to understand the mechanisms underlying the responses of soil organic carbon （SOC） to tillage regimes, physical fractionation techniques were employed to evaluate the effect of long-term no-tillage （NT） on soil aggregation and SOC fractions. Results showed that NT increased the concentration of total SOC by 18.1% compared with conventional tillage （CT） under a long-term maize （Zea mays L.） cropping system in Northeast China. The proportion of soil large macroaggregates （〉 2 000 μm） was higher in NT than that in CT, while small macroaggregates （250-2 000μm） showed an opposite trend. Therefore, the total proportion of macroaggregates （〉 2 000 and 250-2 000μm） was not affected by tillage management. However, C concentrations of macroaggregates on a whole soil basis were higher under NT relative to CT, indicating that both the amount of aggregation and aggregate turnover affected C stabilization. Carbon concentrations of intra-aggregate particulate organic matter associated with microaggregates （iPOM-m） and microaggregates occluded within macroaggregates （iPOM-mM） in NT were 1.6 and 1.8 times greater than those in CT, respectively. Carbon proportions of iPOM-n and iPOM-mM in the total SOC increased from 5.4% and 6.3% in CT to 7.2% and 9.7% in NT, respectively. Furthermore, the difference in the microaggregate protected C （i. e., iPOM-m and iPOM-mM） between NT and CT could explain 45.4% of the difference in the whole SOC. The above results indicate that NT stimulates C accumulation within microaggregates which then are further acted upon in the soil to form macroaggregates. The shift of SOC within microaggregates is beneficial for long-term C sequestration in soil. We also corroborate that the microaggregate protected C is useful as a pool for assessing the impact of tillage management on SOC storage.

Organic matter fractions within macroaggregates in response to long-term fertilization in calcareous soil after reclamation

Soil organic carbon(SOC)plays a key role in improving soil quality and optimizing crop yield.Yet little is known about the fate of macroaggregates(>0.25 mm)under long-term fertilization and their relative importance in SOC sequestration in reclaimed calcareous soil.Therefore,the effects of mineral fertilizers and organic manure on the mechanisms of organic carbon(OC)stabilization in macroaggregates were investigated in this study.Four treatments were used:unfertilized control(CK),mineral fertilizer(NPK),compost chicken manure alone(M),and mineral fertilizers plus manure(MNPK).Samples from the 0–20 cm layer of soil receiving 11-year-long fertilization were separated into four fractions based on the macroaggregates present(unprotected coarse and fine particulate organic matter,cPOM and fPOM;physically protected intra-microaggregate POM,i POM;and biochemically protected mineral associated OM,MOM)by the physical fractionation method.Compared with the control,the long-term application of NPK had little effect on SOC content,total nitrogen(TN)content,and OC and TN contents of macroaggregate fractions.In contrast,incorporation of organic manure(MNPK)significantly increased SOC(45.7%)and TN(24.3%)contents.Application of MNPK increased OC contents within macroaggregate-extracted fractions of cPOM(292.2%),fPOM(136.0%)and iPOM(124.0%),and TN contents within cPOM(607.1%),fPOM(242.5%)and iPOM(127.6%),but not the mineral associated organic carbon(MOM-C)and nitrogen(MOM-N)contents.Unprotected C fractions were more strongly and positively correlated with SOC increase than protected C fractions,especially for cPOM-C,indicating that SOC sequestration mainly occurred via cPOM-C in the studied calcareous soil.In conclusion,MNPK increased the quantity and stability of SOC by increasing the contents of cPOM-C and cPOM-N,suggesting that this management practice(MNPK)is an effective strategy to develop sustainable agriculture.

Soil Organic Carbon Pools in Particle-Size Fractions as Affected by Slope Gradient and Land Use Change in Hilly Regions,Western Iran

This study was conducted to explore the effects of topography and land use changes on particulate organic carbon(POC),particulate total nitrogen(PTN),organic carbon(OC) and total nitrogen(TN) associated with different size primary particle fractions in hilly regions of western Iran.Three popular land uses in the selected site including natural forest(NF),disturbed forest(DF) and cultivated land(CL) and three slope gradients(0-10 %,S1,10-30 %,S2,and 30-50%,S3) were employed as the basis of soil sampling.A total of 99 soil samples were taken from the 0-10 cm surface layer in the whole studied hilly region studied.The results showed that the POC in the forest land use in all slope gradients was considerably more than the deforested and cultivated lands and the highest value was observed at NF-S1 treatment with 9.13%.The values of PTN were significantly higher in the forest land use and in the down slopes(0.5%) than in the deforested and cultivated counterparts and steep slopes(0.09%) except for the CL land use.The C:N ratios in POC fraction were around 17-18 in the forest land and around 23 in the cultivated land.In forest land,the silt-associated OC was highest among the primary particles.The enrichment factor of SOC,EC,was the highest for POC.For the primary particles,EC of both primary fractions of silt and clay showed following trend for selected land uses and slope gradients:CL> DF> NF and S3 > S2> S1.Slope gradient of landscape significantly affected the OC and TN contents associated with the silt and clay particles,whereas higher OC and TN contents were observed in lower positions and the lowest value was measured in the steep slopes.Overall,the results showed that native forest land improves soil organic carbon storage and can reduce the carbon emission and soil erosion especially in the mountainous regions with high rainfall in west of Iran.

Guaranteeing Wireless Communication Secrecy via a WFRFT-Based Cooperative System

In this paper, a weighted fractional Fourier transform(WFRFT) based cooperative overlay system, aiming to guarantee physical layer(PHY) security, is proposed. The paper elaborates how WFRFT and physical layer properties of the wireless medium are collaborated to guarantee the secrecy of wireless transmissions. In the proposed system, WFRFT is first preform on the secret data, such that the transmitted signal is distorted and can only be neutralized by inverse-WFRFT with the same parameter. And then two streams of the transformed sequences that bearing different messages are cooperatively and simultaneously transmitted to two legitimate receivers via a beamforming-liked method, respectively. In general, both the rapid spatial decorrelation property and the inherent security features of WFRFT are leveraged, such that only the eavesdropper's is degraded, and hence, the wireless communication secrecy is reliably guaranteed. Numerical simulations are conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed system in terms of the average bit error rate and the secrecy capacity.

Dynamics of Soil Organic Carbon Fractions and Aggregates in Vegetable Cropping Systems

Fertilisers significantly affect crop production and crop biomass inputs to soil organic carbon(SOC). However, the long-term effects of fertilisers on C associated with aggregates are not yet fully understood. Based on soil aggregate and SOC fractionation analysis, this study investigated the long-term effects of organic manure and inorganic fertilisers on the accumulation and change in SOC and its fractions, including the C concentrations of free light fraction, intra-aggregate particulate organic matter(POM) and intra-aggregate mineral-associated organic matter(MOM). Long-term manure applications improved SOC and increased the concentrations of some C fractions. Manure also accelerated the decomposition of coarse POM(cPOM) into fine POM(fPOM) and facilitated the transformation of fPOM encrustation into intra-microaggregate POM within macroaggregates. However, the application of inorganic fertilisers was detrimental to the formation of fPOM and to the subsequent encrustation of fPOM with clay particles, thus inhibiting the formation of stable microaggregates within macroaggregates. No significant differences were observed among the inorganic fertiliser treatments in terms of C concentrations of MOM, intra-microaggregate MOM within macroaggregate(imMMOM) and intra-microaggregate MOM(imMOM). However, the long-term application of manure resulted in large increases in C concentrations of MOM(36.35%), imMMOM(456.31%) and imMOM(19.33%) compared with control treatment.