Effects of conservation tillage on soil organic matter in paddy rice cultivation

In this study, the effect of conservation tillage on soil organic matter (SOM) in paddy rice cultivation after 10 yr was investigated. Four treatments, disk till-fallow (DTF), disk till-wheat (DTW), conservation till-fallow (CTF) and conservation till-wheat (CTW) were used. The results indicated that the combinative application of no-tillage, ridge culture and wheat cultivation was a sound conservation practice in paddy rice cultivation. It not only significantly increased the concentration of SOM in the topsoil, but also affected optical and pyrolysis characteristics of humic acids (HA) through changing the composition and structure of SOM. At 0–10 cm, the greatest SOM content was in CTW, but declined sharply with depth, while in DTF, DTW and CTF the SOM content was not as high at the surface as in CTW, but did not decline as fast as in CTW. The oxidation stabilization of SOM was generally greater in no-tillage and ridge culture than that in disk till. The HA optical density in CTW at wavelength 665 nm and 465 nm was 0.122 and 0.705, while in DTF was 0.062 and 0.321, respectively. E4/E6 ratio in CTW was higher than that in the other treatments. The enthalpy capacity of the exothermal peak (360–365°C) for the HA DTA curve in no-tillage and ridge culture was lower than that in disk till, while the HA absorption peaks in 1000–1050 cm−1 presented the reverse trend. The oxidation stabilization coefficient of HA in no-tillage and ridge culture was higher than that in disk till, indicating that the polycondensation degree and aromatization of HA were stronger. These findings suggest that it may be possible to manipulate paddy soil through conservational tillage and crop practices, and thereby maintain adequate SOM concentrations, and mitigate soil organic carbon loss from soil to atmosphere.