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Tropical and subtropical acidic soils have been well documented as hotspots of global soil nitrogen (N) oxide (i.e., nitrous oxide (N2O) and nitric oxide (NO) emissions). While the effectiveness of possible mitigation options has been extensively examined in croplands, little is known about their effectiveness in reducing N‐oxide emissions from acidic soils of rapidly expanding tea plantations in China. Here, we conducted a 2‐year field experiment to investigate how organic substitution for synthetic fertilizer and biochar amendment affect soil N‐oxide emissions from a subtropical tea plantation. Across the 2‐year measurement period, full organic substitution for synthetic fertilizer significantly increased N2O emissions by an average of 17% while had a lower NO emission compared to synthetic fertilizer alone. Our global meta‐analysis further revealed that full or partial organic fertilizer substitution resulted in a 29% (95% confidence interval: 5%–60%) increase of N2O emissions from acidic soils. In contrast, irrespective of fertilizer type, biochar amendment significantly reduced N2O emissions by 14% in the first but not second experimental year, suggesting a transient effect. The trade‐off effect of full organic substitution on N2O and NO emissions may be attributed to the favorable conditions for N2O production due to the stimulated activity of nitrifiers and denitrifiers. The suppression of N2O emission following biochar amendment was probably due to promoted further reduction of N2O to dinitrogen. The fertilizer‐induced emission factor (EF) of N2O (2.1%) in the tea plantation was greater than the current IPCC default value, but the EF of NO (0.8%) was comparable to the global estimate. Taken together, while biochar amendment could have mitigation potential, cautions are needed when applying organic substitution for synthetic fertilizer as mitigation options for acidic soils as hotspots of N‐oxide emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biochar has gained significant attention in agricultural and environmental research over the last two decades. This comprehensive review evaluates the effects of biochar on soil organic carbon (SOC), emission of non-CO2 greenhouse gases, and crop yield, including related mechanisms and major influencing factors. The impacts of biochar on SOC, methane and nitrous oxide emissions, and crop yield are controlled by biochar and soil properties and management practices. High-temperature biochar produced from lignin-rich feedstocks may decrease methane and nitrous oxide emissions in acidic soils and strengthen long-term carbon sequestration due to its stable aromatic structure. In contrast, low-temperature biochar from manure may increase crop yield in low-fertility soils. Applying biochar to farmlands in China can increase SOC content by 1.9 Pg C and reduce methane and nitrous oxide emissions by 25 and 20 Mt CO2-eq year−1, respectively, while increasing crop yields by 19%. Despite the increasing evidence of the positive effects of biochar, future research needs to explore the potential factors that could weaken or hinder its capacity to address climate change and secure crop production. We conclude that biochar is not a universal solution for global cropland; however, targeted applications in fields, landscapes, or regional scales, especially in low fertility and sandy soils, could realize the benefits of biochar as a climate-smart measure. Highlights The findings of research on biochar's effects on soil C sequestration, GHG mitigation, and crop production were summarized. The factors influencing the impact of biochar on soil functioning were reviewed. The effects of biochar on soil C sequestration and GHG mitigation in farmlands of China were quantified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid urban development in China has aggravated land subsidence, which poses a potential threat to sustainable urban development. It is imperative to monitor and predict land subsidence over large areas. To address these issues, we chose Henan Province as the study area and applied small baseline subset-interferometric synthetic aperture radar (SBAS-InSAR) technology to obtain land deformation information for monitoring land subsidence from November 2019 to February 2022 with 364 multitrack Sentinel-1A satellite images. The current traditional time-series deep learning models suffer from the problems of (1) poor results in extracting a sequence of information that is too long and (2) the inability to extract the feature information between the influence factor and the land subsidence well. Therefore, a long short-term memory-temporal convolutional network (LSTM-TCN) deep learning model was proposed in order to predict land subsidence and explore the influence of environmental factors, such as the volumetric soil water layer and monthly precipitation, on land subsidence in this study. We used leveling data to verify the effectiveness of SBAS-InSAR in land subsidence monitoring. The results of SBAS-InSAR showed that the land subsidence in Henan Province was obvious and uneven in spatial distribution. The maximum subsidence velocity was −94.54 mm/a, and the uplift velocity was 41.23 mm/a during the monitoring period. Simultaneously, the land subsidence in the study area presented seasonal changes. The rate of land subsidence in spring and summer was greater than that in autumn and winter. The prediction accuracy of the LSTM-TCN model was significantly better than that of the individual LSTM and TCN models because it fully combined their advantages. In addition, the prediction accuracies, with the addition of environmental factors, were improved compared with those using only time-series subsidence information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The estimation of nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions based on specific cropping systems is important for accurate national N2O budgets. Intensively managed vegetable cultivation is responsible for large N2O emissions in mainland China. However, little information can be obtained on the nationwide estimation of direct N2O emissions from vegetable fields. Estimates of fertilizer-induced direct N2O emissions from vegetable fields in mainland China were thus obtained by compiling and analyzing reported data in peer-reviewed journals and research reports. The results indicated that the seasonal N2O emissions from vegetable fields significantly increased with nitrogen (N) fertilizer application (p < 0.0001). According to the ordinary least squares (OLS) model, the fertilizer-induced emission factor (EF) and background emissions of N2O were estimated to be 0.55 ± 0.05% and 1.067 ± 0.277 kg N ha−1 yr−1, respectively. The EF was reduced and the background emission of N2O increased when the measurement duration was prolonged from ≤100 d to >100 and ≤200 d. Comparable results were obtained by the maximum likelihood (ML) model, with an EF of 0.49 ± 0.06% and background N2O emissions of 1.228 ± 0.189 kg N ha−1 yr−1. Based on the OLS-derived parameters, the fertilizer-induced direct emissions and background emissions of N2O were estimated to be 66.95 Gg N and 19.63 Gg N, respectively, in 2009, and the annual N2O emissions were much higher in the provinces of Shandong, Henan, Hebei and Sichuan. The estimated N2O emissions from vegetable fields accounted for 21.4% of the total direct N2O emissions from Chinese croplands, with large uncertainties. Therefore, the EF and background emissions of N2O for each cropping system, particularly for intensively managed vegetable fields, should be specifically determined for accurate national N2O inventories. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The white back planthopper (WBPH), Sogatella furcifera (Horváth) (Hemiptera: Delphacidae), is an important destructive rice pest in Asia that has caused serious economic losses in the main rice‐producing areas of China. To effectively manage this rice pest, it is necessary to investigate its genetic variation and genetic structure and speculate the migration route in China. In this study, we used 12 nuclear microsatellite loci to analyse the genetic variation, gene flow and genetic structure of WBPH in 25 geographic populations in China. Overall, high levels of genetic diversity and genetic differentiation among most populations were detected. Neighbour‐joining dendrograms, STRUCTURE and principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) revealed three genetically distinct groups and exhibited an admixed phylogeographic structure. There was a significant low positive correlation between genetic and geographic distances (r2 = 0.105, p = 0.001), which indicated the role of geographic isolation in the genetic structure of WBPH. Migrant routes detection indicated frequent gene flow exchange between North China and Central China, and low bidirectional gene flows between Northeast China and other regions were detected. Accordingly, this study provides useful data for resolving the genetic relationships and large‐scale migration route of the WBPH and thus contributes to developing more effective management strategies for controlling this pest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) is a significant nitrogen (N) pool in most soils and isconsidered to be important for N cycling. Increasing evidence suggests that not only aminoacids but also small peptides are potential direct nutrient sources for both soil microorganismsand plants. However, current understanding of turnover and underlying mechanismsof those low molecular weight DON (LMW DON) compounds in soils remainsincomplete. In this study, we aimed to investigate mineralization of LMW DONcompounds in a paddy soil from different depths under different N fertilisationpractices; and to test the linkages between soil characteristics and LMW DONturnover. To accomplish this, we collected soils from different depths (i.e., 0-10, 1020, 20-30 and 30-40 cm) in a paddy field under long-term different fertilisationpractices (i.e., control without fertiliser, chemical fertiliser and organic fertiliseralone and their combination) in southern China. We measured soil physiochemicalproperties and abundance and structure of soil microbial communities after long-termfertilisation management. In 14C mineralization assay (7 days at 22 oC), we used theamino acid L-alanine and its peptide tri-L-alanine as model L-enantiomer substratesto investigate the rates of LMW DON mineralisation in paddy soils. Overall, adouble first-order kinetic model conformed very well to the experimental data ofamino acid and peptide mineralization. For both form of LMW DON, the poolsizes of both catabolic and anabolic processes were significantly affected by Nfertiliser, soil depth, and their interaction (P &#x003C;0.0001), thus contributing to pronounceddifferences in microbial C use efficiency among treatments. However, microbial uptakerates of peptide but not amino acid were significantly affected by N fertiliser, soildepth, and their interaction (all P &#x003C;0.05). Results of canonical correspondenceanalysis suggest that microbial C use efficiency of both LMW DON was positivelycorrelated with soil pH, while microbial uptake rates were predominately associatedwith other soil biochemistry properties (e.g. soil and microbial C and N indices). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A 3-year field experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of different organic fertilization strategies for rice–wheat annual rotation systems on net global warming potential (net GWP) and greenhouse gas intensity (GHGI) by incorporating methane, nitrous oxide emissions, the changes in soil organic carbon (SOC) derived from the net ecosystem carbon budget (NECB), and the CO 2 equivalent emissions from manure and chemical nitrogen (N) fertilizer manufacturing. Six fertilization strategies were studied, including control (CK), N fertilizer (CF), pig manure compost + N fertilizer (MC), straw + N fertilizer (SC), straw + pig manure compost + N fertilizer (SM), and straw + straw-decomposing inoculant + N fertilizer (SI). The results indicated that the application of organic amendments did not change the seasonal pattern of GHG emissions but significantly affected their seasonal quantities. Averaged over the 3 cycles, the annual SOC sequestration rates contributed significantly to the net GWPs and were estimated to be 1.01 t C ha −1  yr −1 for the control and 1.13–1.27 t C ha −1  yr −1 for the fertilized plots. Compared to CF, the MC strategy significantly increased SOC while had similar size of net GWP and GHGI, thus deserving recommendation regarding sustainable soil productivity and GHGs mitigations. However, the other proposed organic strategies of SC, SM, and SI significantly increased net GWP and GHGI as well as SOC thus requiring further researches for GHGs mitigations. Therefore, we recommend that the application of manure substituting half chemical fertilizer be an effective strategy while straw returning in any currently studied strategies should be re-examined in the rice–wheat annual rotation system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fruit has become the third-largest agricultural planting industry after cereals and vegetables in China. Fertilization regimes (e.g., application rate and method) in fruit orchards typically differ from cereal croplands, which would incur a pronounced difference in fertilizer-induced nitrous oxide (N 2 O) emissions between them. However, fertilizer-induced direct N 2 O emissions from orchard fields remain poorly understood. We conducted a field experiment in a peach orchard and a global meta-analysis of N 2 O emissions from fruit orchards. The emission factor (EF) of fertilizer N for N 2 O averaged 0.81%, with a background N 2 O emission of 3.4 kg N ha–1 yr-1 in our field study. A global meta-analysis suggested that the linear regression model was the best to fit N 2 O emissions by fertilizer N input for most fruit types compared to the nonlinear models. When averaging all global data, the linear model projected the EF of N 2 O from orchards to be 0.84%, with the background emission of 1.96 kg N ha–1. The estimate of direct N 2 O derived from the orchard-specific nonlinear model was substantially lower than those from the nonlinear model with global cropland measurements. The fertilizer-induced direct N 2 O emission from Chinese orchards during the 2000s was estimated to be 32–49 Gg N yr–1, equivalent to about 14% of total direct N 2 O emissions from Chinese uplands. Therefore, orchard cultivation constitutes a hotspot of N 2 O emissions in the agricultural sector, and priority should be given to emissions reduction to achieve the transition to climate-smart agriculture. [Display omitted] • N 2 O emissions from global orchards were summarized and meta-analyzed. • N 2 O emission was 32–49 Gg N yr–1 from Chinese orchards during the 2000s. • Orchard cultivation is one of the hotspots of agricultural N 2 O emissions. • Orchard N 2 O emissions were similar to emissions from vegetables and tea cultivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seed shape (SS) of soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) is an important morphological trait that significantly affects the quality of marketable seed. Study of the genetic architecture of SS is important and basic to soybean molecular breeding. In the present study, a natural soybean population of 202 diverse accessions mainly from China was used to analyse the genetic basis of SS via genome-wide association analysis (GWAS), which was based on single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) generated by specific-locus amplified fragment sequencing method. In total, 27 335 SNPs were finally identified with minor allele frequencies >5%. By using GWAS, 14 quantitative trait nucleotides (QTNs) were identified to be associated with seed length, 13 with seed width and 21 with seed thickness in four tested environments. Among these QTNs, 21 QTNs overlapped or were located in the linked genomic regions of the reported quantitative trait loci related to SS or seed weight; and the other 27 QTNs were novel loci for SS. Ten QTNs showed environmental stability and were detected under at least two environments. In total, 83 genes were predicted in the 200-kbp flanking region of six stable QTNs that could be detected under >three environments. Gene-based association analysis was performed by using 38 accessions of diverse SS; 778 SNPs were found in the 83 genes based on 38 accessions, and 270 SNPs from 41 genes were found significantly associated with SS. Twenty-eight genes were environmentally stable and/or pleiotropic in controlling two or more SS-related traits at the same time. The identified loci along with the candidate genes could be of great value for studying the molecular mechanisms underlying SS and improving the potential seed yield of soybean. Seed shape of soybean is an important morphological trait that significantly affects the quality of marketable seed. The study combined genotypic and phenotypic data of a Chinese soybean collection with 202 cultivars to find loci underlying seed shape, using genome wide association analysis. The identified loci along with 28 candidate genes could be of great value for studying the molecular mechanisms underlying seed shape and improving the potential seed yield of soybean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in soil due to animal excreta and organic waste is a major threat to human health and ecosystems, and global efforts are required to tackle the issue. However, there is limited knowledge of the variation in ARG prevalence and diversity resulting from different land-use patterns and underlying driving factors in soils. This study aimed to comprehensively characterize the profile of ARGs and mobile genetic elements and their drivers in soil samples collected from 11 provinces across China, representing three different land-use types, using high-throughput quantitative polymerase chain reaction and 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. Our results showed that agricultural soil had the highest abundance and diversity of ARGs, followed by tea plantation and forest land. A total of 124 unique ARGs were detected in all samples, with shared subtypes among different land-use patterns indicating a common origin or high transmission frequency. Moreover, significant differences in ARG distribution were observed among different geographical regions, with the greatest enrichment of ARGs found in southern China. Biotic and abiotic factors, including soil properties, climatic factors, and bacterial diversity, were identified as the primary drivers associated with ARG abundance, explaining 71.8% of total ARG variation. The findings of our study demonstrate that different land-use patterns are associated with variations in ARG abundance in soil, with agricultural practices posing the greatest risk to human health and ecosystems regarding ARGs. Our identification of biotic and abiotic drivers of ARG abundance provides valuable insights into strategies for mitigating the spread of these genes. This study emphasizes the need for coordinated and integrated approaches to address the global antimicrobial resistance crisis. [Display omitted] • The highest ARG abundance and diversity occurred in agricultural soil. • Forest soil showed high contamination trends owing to the spread of ARGs. • Large differences in ARG abundance across geographic regions in China. • Bacterial communities, soil properties, and climatic factors jointly to determine ARG profiles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]