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Soil organic carbon pools and productivity relationships for a 34 year old rice–wheat–jute agroecosystem under different fertilizer treatments

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Abstract

Soil organic carbon (SOC) pools are important in maintaining soil productivity and influencing the CO2 loading into the atmosphere. An attempt is made here to investigate into the dynamics of pools of SOC viz., total organic carbon (C tot), oxidisable organic carbon (C oc) and its four different fractions such as very labile (C frac 1), labile (C frac 2), less labile (C frac 3) and non-labile (C frac 4), microbial biomass carbon (C mic), mineralizable carbon (C min), and particulate organic carbon (C p) in relation to crop productivity using a 34 year old rice (Oryza sativa L)–wheat (Triticum aestivum L)–jute (Corchorus olitorius L) cropping system with different management strategies (no fertilization, only N, NP, NPK and NPK + FYM) in the hot humid, subtropics of India. A fallow treatment was also included to compare the impact of cultivation vis-à-vis no cultivation. Cultivation over the years caused a net decrease, while balanced fertilization with NPK maintained the SOC pools at par with the fallow. Only 22% of the C applied as FYM was stabilized into SOC, while the rest got lost. Of the analysed pools, C frac 1, C mic, C p and C min were influenced most by the treatments imposed. Most of the labile pools were significantly correlated with each other and with the yield and sustainable yield index (SYI) of the studied system. Of them, C frac1, C min, C mic and C p explained higher per cent variability in the SYI and yield of the crops. Results suggest that because of low cost and ease of estimation and also for upkeeping environmental conditions, C frac1 may be used as a good indicator for assessment of soil as to its crop productivity.

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Abbreviations

C oc :

oxidizable organic carbon

C frac 1 :

very labile fraction of C oc

C frac 2 :

labile fraction of C oc

C frac 3 :

less labile fraction of C oc

C frac 4 :

non-labile fraction of C oc

C mic :

microbial biomass carbon

C min :

mineralizable carbon

C p :

particulate and mineral-associated organic carbon

C tot :

total soil organic carbon

FYM:

farmyard manure

HYV:

high yielding variety

MQ:

microbial quotient

qCO2 :

respiratory quotient

SOC:

soil organic carbon

SOCinit :

initial soil organic carbon

SYI:

sustainable yield index.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Engineering Division, Department of Civil Engineering, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, 700 032, India

    Bidisha Majumder

  2. Directorate of Research, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Kalyani, 741235, West Bengal, India

    Biswapati Mandal & P. K. Bandyopadhyay

  3. Div. of Crop Production, Central Research Insititute for Jute and Allied Fibres, Barrackpore, 743 101, West Bengal, India

    Jaladhi Chaudhury

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  1. Bidisha Majumder
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  2. Biswapati Mandal
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  3. P. K. Bandyopadhyay
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  4. Jaladhi Chaudhury
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Correspondence to Bidisha Majumder.

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Majumder, B., Mandal, B., Bandyopadhyay, P.K. et al. Soil organic carbon pools and productivity relationships for a 34 year old rice–wheat–jute agroecosystem under different fertilizer treatments. Plant Soil 297, 53–67 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-007-9319-0

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