Impacts of long-term ridge culture on aggregate stability in purple paddy soil of Sichuan basin

Ridge culture is a special conservation tillage method, but the long-term influence of this tillage system on soil aggregate-size stability in paddy fields is largely unknown in southwest of China. The paper is to evaluate soil aggregate stability and to determine the relationship between soil organic carbon (SOC) and soil aggregate stability. Soil samples at 0 cm-20 cm layer were adopted from a long-term (16 a) field experiment including conventional tillage: plain culture, summer rice crop and winter upland crop under drained conditions (PUR-r); and conservation tillage: ridge culture without tillage, summer rice and winter fallow with floodwater layer annually (NTR-f), winter upland crop under drained conditions (NTR-r), and wide ridge culture without tillage, summer rice crop and winter upland crop under conditions (NTRw-r), respectively. Different pretreatments, such as slaking in fast wetting, wetting and subsequent slaking, were applied to simulate the breakdown mechanisms of aggregates in paddy soil. The results show that soil particles contents were mainly consisted of silt (0.050 mm to 1.000 mm) in fraction of 42.9% to 51.2%, sand (0.050 mm to 0.001 mm) in fraction of 28.0% to 31.8%, and clay (<0.001 mm) in fraction of 17.9% to 25.4%. The amount of aggregate-size was greatly observed in fraction of 2.000 mm-6.720 mm under ridge culture in paddy soil (more than 50$) under slaking and wetting pretreatment. The proportion of soil macro-aggregates (>0.250 mm) in conservation tillage was greatly higher than that in conventional tillage under subsequent fast slaking treatment. Minimal differences of aggregate stability between slaking in fast wetting and wetting were observed, while significant differences were found between ridge culture and plain culture. The aggregate stability under slaking treatment ranked in the order of NTR-r>NTRw-r> NTR-f > PUR-r, while under wetting was NTRw-r > NTR-r > NTR-f >PUR-r. There was a positive correlation between the aggregate stability and SOC concentration under wetting, and a low correlation was observed under slaking pretreatment. Soil exposure with tillage and lack of rice/rape-seed stubble inputs caused declines in aggregation and organic carbon, both of which make soil susceptible to water erosion. Adoption of ridge culture with no-tillage integrated with crop rotation and stubble mulch significantly altered soil organic concentration. It was a valuable conservation practice for soil aggregation and soil organic carbon sequestration on paddy soil.