Analysis on Variation of Soil Organic Carbon and Total Nitrogen Content and Carbon Storage in the Oasis Cotton Field of Manas River Valley

Objective] The research aimed to study soil organic carbon and total ni-trogen distribution in oasis cotton farmland. [Method] With the oasis cotton field of Manas River Val ey in Tianshan Mountains as the research area and abandoned farmland as a control, the distribution characteristics of soil organic carbon and total nitrogen content in the cotton field of Manas River Val ey in the last 23 years were investigated by using geographic methods. [Result] Presenting vertical distribution, cotton soil organic carbon and total nitrogen content in Manas River Val ey de-creased with the increase of soil depth, and those in 0-30 cm soil layer was sig-nificantly higher than those in soil layer of below 30 cm, while organic carbon stor-age showed the trend of increase. Also in vertical distribution, soil organic carbon and total nitrogen decreased significantly with the increase of soil depth, and soil organic carbon content in abandoned farmland decreased month by month. Howev-er, cotton soil organic carbon storage firstly decreased and then increased in the oasis cotton field that in the early growth of cotton, soil organic carbon in the layers of 0-30 and 30-100 cm decreased to the lowest in the bloom stage, and then or-ganic carbon increased with the reproductive growth of cotton into the later stages. However, due to no input of plant litter in the abandoned farmland, the soil organic carbon storage decreased month by month. There were significantly differences be-tween oasis cotton field and abandoned farmland in organic carbon contents. [Con-clusion] The soil organic carbon content and total nitrogen content in oasis cotton field were significantly higher than those in the abandoned farmland. The soil organ-ic carbon storage increased in the layer of 0-30 cm, while there was no significant change of soil organic carbon and total nitrogen content in the layer of 30-100 cm, which was consistent with the previous study on the distribution characteristics of soil organic carbon and total nitrogen content profile.

Effects of cotton field management practices on soil CO2 emission and C balance in an arid region of Northwest China

Changes in both soil organic C storage and soil respiration in farmland ecosystems may affect atmospheric CO2 concentration and global C cycle. The objective of this field experiment was to study the effects of three crop field management practices on soil CO2 emission and C balance in a cotton field in an arid region of Northwest China. The three management practices were irrigation methods（drip and flood）, stubble managements（stubble-incorporated and stubble-removed） and fertilizer amendments（no fertilizer（CK）, chicken manure（OM）, inorganic N, P and K fertilizer（NPK）, and inorganic fertilizer plus chicken manure（NPK＋OM））. The results showed that within the C pool range, soil CO2 emission during the whole growing season was higher in the drip irrigation treatment than in the corresponding flood irrigation treatment, while soil organic C concentration was larger in the flood irrigation treatment than in the corresponding drip irrigation treatment. Furthermore, soil CO2 emission and organic C concentration were all higher in the stubble-incorporated treatment than in the corresponding stubble-removed treatment, and larger in the NPK＋OM treatment than in the other three fertilizer amendments within the C pool range. The combination of flood irrigation, stubble incorporation and application of either NPK＋OM or OM increased soil organic C concentration in the 0-60 cm soil depth. Calculation of net ecosystem productivity（NEP） under different management practices indicated that the combination of drip irrigation, stubble incorporation and NPK＋OM increased the size of the C pool most, followed by the combination of drip irrigation, stubble incorporation and NPK. In conclusion, management practices have significant impacts on soil CO2 emission, organic C concentration and C balance in cotton fields. Consequently, appropriate management practices, such as the combination of drip irrigation, stubble incorporation, and either NPK＋OM or NPK could increase soil C storage in cotton fields of Northwest China.