| Title: |
Divergence in physical, chemical, and biological soil properties caused by different long-term bare fallow management and natural succession |
| Authors: |
Schlüter, Steffen; Wu, Mengqi; Phalempin, Maxime; Philipp, Lena; Blagodatskaya, Evgenia; Reitz, Thomas; Simon, Carsten; Lechtenfeld, Oliver; Vogel, Hans-Jörg; Schädler, Martin; Merbach, Ines |
| Source: |
ISSN: 0016-7061 |
| Publisher Information: |
Elsevier 2025-05-24 |
| Document Type: |
Electronic Resource |
| Abstract: |
The absence of plants has profound effects on many ecosystem functions of soil. Long-term bare fallow trials are valuable tools for studying the dynamics in soil carbon decline and associated soil degradation. However, it is challenging to disentangle the contribution of missing organic inputs from the frequent physical disturbance caused by soil tillage or herbicide application to keep the soil free from vegetation. In this study, we evaluate a unique long-term experiment (36 years) in which a bare fallow was established using different methods: i) mechanically through soil tillage, ii) chemically with herbicides, and iii) a combination of both methods. The aim was to separately assess the effects of tillage and herbicide application on various soil properties. Additionally, the bare fallow treatments were compared with natural succession to evaluate the effect of missing organic inputs. We monitored the annual dynamics of carbon and nitrogen contents in the topsoil (0–30 cm) and subsoil (30–60 cm). In addition, we analyzed the shallow topsoil (5–10 cm) comprehensively by integrating physical properties (microstructure and hydraulic properties), chemical properties and biological properties. All bare fallows were declining in carbon contents at very similar rates while physical disturbance by conventional tillage did not accelerate this effect. In both soil depths of all bare fallows a fast decline in C content during the first ten years was followed by a more gradual or no decline. A large share of the long-term stable carbon was contributed by pyrogenic carbon and to a lesser degree by microbially processed carbon. In the natural succession, the annual increase in soil organic carbon contents was more pronounced in the topsoil than in the subsoil and had not reached a plateau after 36 years. Irrespective of the bare fallow treatment, the absence of plants ceased the nutrient uplift by roots and the supply of carbon, wh |
| Index Terms: |
X-ray CT; Enzyme activity; High-resolution mass spectrometry; Microbial community composition; Herbicide; Soil tillage |
| URL: |
https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=30835; https://doi.org/10.48758/ufz.15787; https://doi.org/10.48758/ufz.15787 |
| Availability: |
Open access content. Open access content |
| Note: |
ISSN: 0016-7061; Geoderma 459;; art. 117361; English |
| Other Numbers: |
DEPKD oai:ufz.de:30835; 1521233279 |
| Contributing Source: |
PUBLIKATIONS-DATENBANK; From OAIster®, provided by the OCLC Cooperative. |
| Accession Number: |
edsoai.on1521233279 |
| Database: |
OAIster |