Impact of nutrient management practices on soil organic carbon fractions under cereal based cropping systems
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Date
2023-07
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CCSHAU, Hisar
Abstract
An on-going field experiment started in Kharif 2020 at Research Farm, Department of Soil Science, CCS HAU, Hisar (India) was selected for present study. The soil samples were collected after harvest of moong in the month of July, 2022. Irrespective of the nutrient management practices, soil organic carbon (SOC) fractions i.e. SOC (7.3 mg kg-1), hot water soluble C (HWSC: 209.25 mg kg-1), dissolved OC (DOC: 41.85 mg kg-1), total OC (TOC: 8.5 mg kg-1), microbial biomass C (MBC: 395.42 mg kg-1), MB nitrogen (MBN: 41.45 mg kg-1), available N, P, K and micronutrients were higher in soils under maize-potato-moong cropping system. Soil electrical conductivity (EC) and available S were higher in soils under pearl millet-wheat cropping system. Soil pH and less labile C were highest in soils under maize-potato cropping system. Plots under pearl millet-chickpea cropping system exhibited significantly higher very labile C, labile C and recalcitrant C content. The results showed that application of organic nutrient source (FYM) + residue retention (RR) relatively reduced soil pH (7.86) as compared to inorganic sources applied alone or in combination with RR and, a reverse trend was obtained for soil EC. Significantly higher soil EC (0.40 dSm-1), HWSC (254.16 mg kg-1), DOC (50.84 mg kg-1), SOC (7.5 mg kg-1), TOC (8.9 mg kg-1), MBC(448.91 mg kg-1) and available Fe (20.50 mg kg-1), Mn (9.70 mg kg-1), Cu (1.35 mg kg-1) and Zn (1.83 mg kg-1) were found under treatment received organic nutrient source + RR over the other nutrient management practices. Combined use of inorganic nutrient sources and RR showed higher availability of P (20.97 kg ha-1) and K(426.00 kg ha-1) followed by sole application of inorganic nutrient sources (available P: 19.96 and available K: 417.7 kg ha-1). Application of inorganic nutrient sources coupled with RR showed beneficial impacts on availability of N (173.25 kg ha-1) and MBN (46.70 mg kg-1) as compared to sole application of organic nutrient source. Application of organic or inorganic nutrient sources along with RR helped to improve soil physico-chemical and microbial properties. Inclusion of nitrogen fixing legume i.e. moong has enhanced the soil OC fractions and improved nutrient availability. Therefore, nutrient management practices and choice of crops under intensive cropping systems could lead to improve the soil health.