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In the early stage of an incubation experiment, soil respiration has a sensitive response to different levels of soil moisture. To investigate the effects of soil moisture on soil respiration under different tillage practices, we designed an incubation trial using air-dried soil samples collected from tillage experiment station established on black soils in 2001. The tillage experiment consisted of no-tillage (NT), ridge tillage (RT), and conventional tillage (CT). According to field capacity (water-holding capacity, WHC), we set nine moisture levels including 30%, 60%, 90%, 120%, 150%, 180%, 210%, 240%, 270% WHC. During the 22-day short-term incubation, soil CO₂ emission was measured. In the early stage of incubation, the priming effects occurred under all tillage practices. There were positive correlations between soil respiration and soil moisture. In addition to drought and flood conditions, soil CO₂ fluxes followed the order of NT > RT > CT. We fitted the relationship between soil moisture and soil CO₂ fluxes under different tillage practices. In the range of 30%-270% WHC, soil CO₂ fluxes and soil moisture fitted a quadratic regression equation under NT, and linear regression equations under RT and CT. Under the conditions of 30%-210% WHC of both NT and RT, soil CO₂ fluxes and soil moisture were well fitted by the logarithmic equation with fitting coefficient R² = 0.966 and 0.956, respectively.

In this study, the CO2 emission characteristics and its relationships with C and N concentration in soil amended with different types of residues were studied by thermostatic incubation method to investigate the decomposition characteristics of different types of residues after adding to the soil and the effect of C, N concentration in residues on carbon sequestration. The results showed that during 61 days incubation, the CO2 efflux rates in the soils added with the different residues changed over time and exhibited an initial decrease, followed by a stable low plateau, and then an increase to a high plateau and finally followed by a decrease. The characteristics of CO2 emissions varied with residues, with the differences mainly occurring in the starting and duration of the high plateau CO2 emission period. The cumulative CO2-C emission was significantly affected by residue type. The cumulative CO2-C emissions from soils amended with corn roots, bottom corn stalks, corn leaves, and soybean leaves (about 160 µmol · g(-1) of soil and residue) were significantly greater than those from soils amended with other residues for the initial 21 days. Except for soybean leaves, the cumulative soil CO2 emissions over the 61 day incubation period from soils amended with soybean residues were higher than that from soil amended with corn residues. There were significant linear relationships between the ratio of cumulative CO2-C emission to residue carbon concentration (CR), and both C/N and nitrogen concentration of residues in the initial 21 days incubation, but not for the entire 61 days incubation. Our study suggested that soil CO2 emission was closely dependent upon the type of residue. Soybean residues decomposed more easily than corn residues. However, the decay rate of soybean residues was slower than that of corn residues at the initial stage of incubation. Soil CO2 emission was significantly affected by the C/N ratios and nitrogen concentrations of crop residues only at the early phase of incubation.

The decomposed rate of crop residues is a major determinant for carbon balance and nutrient cycling in agroecosystem. In this study, a constant temperature incubation study was conducted to evaluate CO2 emission and microbial biomass based on four different parts of corn straw (roots, lower stem, upper stem and leaves) and two soils with different textures (sandy loam and clay loam) from the black soil region. The relationships between soil CO2 emission, microbial biomass and the ratio of carbon (C) to nitrogen (N) and lignin of corn residues were analyzed by the linear regression. Results showed that the production of CO2 was increased with the addition of different parts of corn straw to soil, with the value of priming effect (PE) ranged from 215. 53 µmol . g-1 to 335. 17 µmol . g -1. Except for corn leaves, the cumulative CO2 production and PE of clay loam soil were significantly higher than those in sandy loam soil. The correlation of PE with lignin/N was obviously more significant than that with lignin concentration, nitrogen concentration and C/N of corn residue. The addition of corn straw to soil increased the contents of MBC and MBN and decreased MBC/MBN, which suggested that more nitrogen rather than carbon was conserved in microbial community. The augmenter of microbial biomass in sandy loam soil was greater than that in clay loam soil, but the total dissolved nitrogen was lower. Our results indicated that the differences in CO2 emission with the addition of residues to soils were primarily ascribe to the different lignin/N ratio in different corn parts; and the corn residues added into the sandy loam soil could enhance carbon sequestration, microbial biomass and nitrogen holding ability relative to clay loam soil.

A study was conducted on a long-term (13 years) tillage and rotation experiment on black soil in northeast China to determine the effects of tillage, time and soil depth on soil microbial biomass carbon (MBC). Tillage systems included no tillage (NT), ridge tillage (RT) and mould-board plough (MP). Soil sampling was done at 0-5, 5-10 and 10-20 cm depths in June, August and September, 2013, and April, 2014 in the corn phase of corn-soybean rotation plots. MBC content was measured by the chloroform fumigation extraction (CFE) method. The results showed that the MBC content varied with sampling time and soil depth. Soil MBC content was the lowest in April for all three tillage systems, and was highest in June for MP, and highest in August for NT and RT. At each sampling time, tillage system had a significant effect on soil MBC content only in the top 0-5 cm layer. The MBC content showed obvious stratification under NT and RT with a higher MBC content in the top 0-5 cm layer than under MP. The stratification ratios under NT and RT were greatest in September when they were respectively 67.8% and 95.5% greater than under MP. Our results showed that soil MBC contents were greatly affected by the time and soil depth, and were more apparently accumulated in the top layer under NT and RT.