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Journal article
Responses of soil nutrients and microbial activity to the mill-mud application in a compaction-affected sugarcane field
Soil research (Collingwood, Vic.), Vol.60(4), pp.385-398
29/11/2021
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Abstract
Context. Compaction removal and organic amendment application are commonly used to mitigate the compaction-induced declines in crop yield, soil carbon (C) and soil health. However, the response of microbial activities and nutrient pools to the combination of mill-mud amendments and decompaction in the soil profile are not fully understood. Aims. A field trial was conducted at Burdekin, Australia, to investigate the effects of different decompaction managements on soil nutrient cycling, associated biological activities and sugarcane yield. Methods. This experiment included four treatments: control (CK, without mill-mud), mill-mud shallow furrow (MS), deep trenching without mill-mud (DT) and deep trenching mill-mud application (MD). Key results. The MD treatment increased concentrations of hot water extractable organic C by 30-70% and hot water extractable total nitrogen (N) by 30-90% at the application depth. Soil microbial biomass C and N were also higher in mill-mud applied layers. Mill-mud applied treatments increased plant cane yield by 7% (MS treatment) and 14% (MD treatment) compared to CK. The DT treatment also increased plant cane yield by 11% compared to CK. Conclusion. The MD treatment increased the supply of organic C and nutrients to the microbial community within the entire soil profile, enhanced nutrient cycling processes, improved soil environmental conditions and soil health for sugarcane growth and thus increased sugarcane productivity. Implications. Further research should focus on microbial community composition shifts to further explore the mechanisms responsible for soil microorganism regulation of nutrient cycling in sugarcane farming systems.
Details
- Title
- Responses of soil nutrients and microbial activity to the mill-mud application in a compaction-affected sugarcane field
- Creators
- Xiangyu Liu - Griffith UniversityRob Milla - Burdekin Productivity Services, 210 Old Clare Road, Ayr, Qld 4807, Australia.Terry Granshaw - Burdekin Productivity Services, 210 Old Clare Road, Ayr, Qld 4807, Australia.Lukas Van Zwieten - Griffith UniversityMehran Rezaei Rashti - Griffith UniversityMaryam Esfandbod - Griffith UniversityChengrong Chen - Griffith University
- Publication Details
- Soil research (Collingwood, Vic.), Vol.60(4), pp.385-398
- Comment
- We would like to thank Danielle Skocaj and other staff members of Sugar Research Australia for providing access to the field sampling site. Also, we would like to give special thanks to staff members of Burdekin Productivity Services Pty Ltd for their assistance in the field sampling. We would also like to thank Clare Morrison for her English editing throughout the manuscript. The corresponding author, Chengrong Chen, is an Associate Editor of Soil Research, but was blinded from the peer review process for this paper. The other authors declare no conflicts of interest.
- Publisher
- Csiro Publishing
- Number of pages
- 14
- Grant note
- This work has been supported by the Cooperative Research Centre for High Performance Soils whose activities are funded by the Australian Government; Department of Industry, Innovation and Science; Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) Program. Moreover, it is acknowledged that Xiangyu Liu is financially supported by a Soil CRC Top-up Scholarship and a Griffith University Postgraduate Research Scholarship.
- Identifiers
- 991013054781802368
- Copyright
- © 2022 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)
- Academic Unit
- Faculty of Science and Engineering
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article