[Impact of different tillage practices on soil organic carbon and water use efficiency under continuous wheat-maize...

Base on an 8-year field experiment, the effects of tillage practices coupled with or without straw return on the soil organic carbon (SOC) and water use efficiency (WUE) were investigated in Guanzhong Plain during the growing seasons from 2008 to 2009. The results showed that conservation tillage practices (sub-soiling, SS; rotary tillage, RT; no-till, NT) improved the SOC, WUE and crop yield compared with conventional tillage (CT), among which, SS coupled with straw return had the highest increment, with increase in SOC content of the 0-30 cm soil layer, WUE and crop yield by 19.5%, 16.9% and 20.5%, respectively. The NT practice effectively increased the SOC content of the 0-10 cm soil layer. Conclusively, under the current soil and climatic conditions in Guanzhong Plain, sub-soiling coupled with straw return is the most efficient tillage practice for promoting SOC accumulation, increasing water-use efficiency and yield.