Publications by authors named "Zhengrong Kan"

Pyrolyzing biomass (e.g., crop straw) to produce biochar is a sustainable strategy in agricultural farmlands.

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Fungi as heterotrophs are key participants in the decomposition of organic materials and the transformation of nutrients in agroecosystems. Ditch-buried straw return as a novel conservation management strategy can improve soil fertility and alter hydrothermal processes. However, how ditch-buried straw return strategies affect the soil fungal community is still unclear.

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Climate warming poses a serious threat to soil biodiversity and crop yield. Application of organic fertilizer has been extensively practiced to improve soil health and crop productivity. However, information is limited about the effects of organic fertilizer on microbial communities and diversity (richness) under warming.

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Residue returning (RR) was widely implemented to increase soil organic carbon (SOC) in farmland. Extensive studies concentrated on the effects of RR on SOC quantity instead of SOC fractions at aggregate scales. This study investigated the effects of 20-year RR on the distribution of labile (e.

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The incorporation of green manure into cropping systems is a potential strategy for sequestering soil carbon (C), especially in saline-alkali soil. Yet, there are still unknown about the substitution impacts of green manure on nitrogen (N) fertilizer in wheat-green manure multiple cropping system. Herein, a five-year field experiment was performed to determine the impact of three levels of N fertilizer inputs [i.

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Straw deep returning as an interlayer is a novel practice to enhance soil carbon and nutrients. However, the impact of applying various amounts of straw as an interlayer on soil quality still remain unclear in the saline soil. Therefore, a field experiment was carried out over four years (2015-2018) in Hetao Irrigation District, China.

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Rice-wheat rotation (RWR) is one of the major cropping systems in China and plays a crucial role in the country's food security. With the promotion of "burn ban" and "straw return" policies, the "straw return + rice-wheat crop rotation system" has been developed in China's RWR area. However, the effect of promotion of straw return on production and ecological benefits of RWR areas is unclear.

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Recommended management practices (RMPs, e.g., manuring, no-tillage, crop residue return) can increase soil organic carbon (SOC), reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and maintain soil health in croplands.

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Methane (CH) is the main greenhouse gas emitted from rice paddy fields driven by methanogens, for which methanogenic abundance on CH production has been intensively investigated. However, information is limited about the relationship between methanogenic diversity (e.g.

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Intensive attentions have been paid to the positive effects on nitrous oxide (NO) production under straw return or the presence of earthworms. Straw return as a sustainable practice can promote earthworm growth, how the interactions between straw and earthworms affect NO production is still not well known. A split-plot field experiment (straw return as main plot and earthworm addition as subplot) was performed to quantify the interactive effects of straw and earthworm on NO emissions from a wheat field and to determine the underlying mechanisms from nitrification and denitrification processes.

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Soil organic carbon (SOC) is related to soil fertility, crop yield, and climate change mitigation. Paddy soil is a significant carbon (C) sink, but its C sequestration potential has not been realized as the various driving factors are still not fully understood. We performed a 5-year paddy field experiment in southern China to estimate tillage effects on SOC accumulation and its relation with soil bacteria.

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Mechanisms of soil organic carbon (SOC) stabilization have been widely studied due to their relevance in the global carbon cycle. No-till (NT) has been frequently adopted to sequester SOC; however, limited information is available regarding whether sequestered SOC will be stabilized for long term. Thus, we reviewed the mechanisms affecting SOC stability in NT systems, including the priming effects (PE), molecular structure of SOC, aggregate protection, association with soil minerals, microbial properties, and environmental effects.

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The sensitivity of soil organic carbon (SOC) mineralization to temperature could affect the future atmospheric CO levels under global warming. Sieved soils are widely used to assess SOC mineralization and its temperature sensitivity (Q) via laboratory incubation. However, sieved soils cause a temporary increase in mineralization due to the destruction of soil structure, which can affect estimates of SOC mineralization, especially in soils managed with no-till (NT).

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Continuous single tillage has the potential to increase greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and decrease the accumulation of soil organic carbon (SOC), thus increasing carbon footprints (CFs). However, in a wheat-maize cropping system, limited information was available about the effects of strategic tillage on CFs. Thus, a four-year field experiment was conducted, including continuous rotary tillage (RT), continuous no-till (NT), RT + subsoiling (RS), and NT + subsoiling (NS), to investigate the effects of NS (strategic tillage) on the unit area and unit yield.

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Decreasing the soil organic carbon (SOC) decomposition is critical to improve the quality of the soil and mitigate atmospheric CO emissions. To improve the ability to protect the SOC by optimizing tillage management, this study investigated the laboratory-based SOC mineralization (decomposition) and soil chemical properties under different tillage practices, including no tillage with straw mulch (NTS), rotary tillage with straw incorporated (RTS), moldboard plow tillage with straw incorporated (CTS) and moldboard plow tillage with straw removal (CT). Soil samples of six sampling dates from April 2017 to October 2018 were incubated at 25 °C and 70% water holding capacity for 60 d.

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A site experiment was conducted to assess temporal dynamics of soil organic carbon (SOC) and the drivers under no-tillage (NT) and residue retention (RR) in the North China Plain (NCP). The results indicated that NT and RR can significantly increase SOC up to a depth of 30 cm. On average, NT increased SOC by 8.

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