Chemical fertilizers could be completely replaced by manure to maintain high maize yield and soil organic carbon (SOC) when SOC reaches a threshold in the Northeast China Plain

The combined use of chemical and organic fertilizers is considered a good method to sustain high crop yield and enhance soil organic carbon (SOC), but it is still unclear when and to what extent chemical fertilizers could be replaced by organic fertilizers. We selected a long-term soil fertility experiment in Gongzhuling, Northeast China Plain to examine the temporal dynamics of crop yield and SOC in response to chemical nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium (NPK) fertilizers and manure, applied both individually and in combination, over the course of three decades (1980-2010). We aimed to test 1) which fertilizer application is the best for increasing both maize yield and SOC in this region, and 2) whether chemical fertilizers can be replaced by manure to maintain high maize yield and enhance SOC, and if so, when this replacement should be implemented. We observed that NPK fertilizers induced a considerable increase in maize yield in the first 12 years after the initiation of the experiment, but manure addition did not. In the following years, the addition of both NPK fertilizers and manure led to an increase in maize yield. SOC increased considerably in treatments with manure but remained the same or even declined with NPK treatments. The increase in maize yield induced by NPK fertilizers alone declined greatly with increasing SOC, whereas the combination of NPK and manure resulted in high maize yield and a remarkable improvement in SOC stock. Based on these results we suggested that NPK fertilizers could be at least partially replaced by manure to sustain high maize yield after SOC stock has reached 41.96 Mg C ha−1 in the Northeast China Plain and highly recommend the combined application of chemical fertilizers and manure (i.e., 60 Mg ha−1).