Effects of long-term straw return on soil organic carbon storage and sequestration rate in North China upland crops: A meta-analysis

Soil organic carbon (SOC) is essential for soil fertility and climate change mitigation, and carbon can be sequestered in soil through proper soil management, including straw return. However, results of studies of long-term straw return on SOC are contradictory and increasing SOC stocks in upland soils is challenging. This study of North China upland agricultural fields quantified the effects of several fertilizer and straw return treatments on SOC storage changes and crop yields, considering different cropping duration periods, soil types, and cropping systems to establish the relationships of SOC sequestration rates with initial SOC stocks and annual straw C inputs. Our meta-analysis using long-term field experiments showed that SOC stock responses to straw return were greater than that of mineral fertilizers alone. Black soils with higher initial SOC stocks also had lower SOC stock increases than did soils with lower initial SOC stocks (fluvo-aquic and loessial soils) following applications of nitrogen-phosphorous-potassium (NPK) fertilizer and NPK+S (straw). Soil C stocks under the NPK and NPK+S treatments increased in the more-than-20-year duration period, while significant SOC stock increases in the NP and NP+S treatment groups were limited to the 11- to 20-year period. Annual crop productivity was higher in double-cropped wheat and maize under all fertilization treatments, including control (no fertilization), than in the single-crop systems (wheat or maize). Also, the annual soil sequestration rates and annual straw C inputs of the treatments with straw return (NP+S and NPK+S) were significantly positively related. Moreover, initial SOC stocks and SOC sequestration rates of those treatments were highly negatively correlated. Thus, long-term straw return integrated with mineral fertilization in upland wheat and maize croplands leads to increased crop yields and SOC stocks. However, those effects of straw return are highly dependent on fertilizer management, cropping system, soil type, duration period, and the initial SOC content.