Acta Agriculturae Zhejiangensis ›› 2023, Vol. 35 ›› Issue (10): 2446-2455.DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1004-1524.20221624

• Environmental Science • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Effects of straw returning on soil structure and spring maize growth

YU Bo(), WANG Yuyan, REN Qin, DANG Yulei, ZHANG Zhipeng, WANG Yu   

  1. School of Life Science and Technology, Jining Normal University, Ulanqab 012000, Inner Mongolia, China
  • Received:2022-11-14 Online:2023-10-25 Published:2023-10-31

Abstract:

To explore the effect of straw returning to the field on soil structure and spring maize growth, an experiment with 4 consecutive years of straw returning was set up to determine the changes of soil physical properties, structure, and root indexes and yield of spring maize. It was shown that after 4 years of straw returning to the field, the mass ratio of aggregate with particle size ≥0.25 mm, the mean weight diameter and geometric mean diameter of the aggregates were sifnificantly (P<0.05) increased by 8.81%, 12.61%, 20.35%, respectively; the aggregate stability and sabotage of water-stable aggregates were significantly increased by 38.09% and 6.85 percentage points, respectively; the percentage of aggregate disruption was significantly decreased by 8.49%; the soil bulk density was significantly decreased by 0.2 g·cm-3; the total porosity, mass water content and field capacity were significantly increased by 7.53, 9.92, 13.05 percentage points; the dry weight of root, root surface area and root volume of spring maize in topsoil (0-20 cm) were all significantly increased; and the yield of spring maize was significantly increased by 24.58%. The results showed that long-term straw returning to the field changed the soil structure, improved the water retention, permeability and aggregate stability of soil, improved the growth environment of root system, and significantly increased the yield of spring maize.

Key words: straw returning, soil aggregate, mean weight diameter, spring maize, root system

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