Plant Soil Environ., 2024, 70(1):40-47 | DOI: 10.17221/284/2023-PSE

Responses of soil nutrients, enzyme activities, and maize yield to straw and plastic film mulching in coastal saline-alkalineOriginal Paper

Zhen Liu1,2, Mengkun Zhang2, Zengjiao Wang2, Ying Shen2, Deheng Zhang2, Shenghao Zhang2, Xingchao Qi1, Xuepeng Zhang3, Tao Sun4, Shenzhong Tian4, Tangyuan Ning2
1 Shandong Key Laboratory of Eco-Environmental Science for Yellow River Delta, Shandong University of Aeronautics, Binzhou, P.R. China
2 Key Laboratory of Crop Water Physiology and Drought-Tolerance Germplasm Improvement of Ministry of Agriculture, College of Agronomy, Shandong Agricultural University, Taian, P.R. China
3 Crop Research Institute, Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Jinan, P.R. China
4 State Key Laboratory of Nutrient Use and Management, Key Laboratory of Wastes Matrix Utilisation, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Institute of Agricultural Resources and Environment, Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Jinan, P.R. China

To address the issue of low soil nutrients and low crop yields in coastal alkaline salines, a field experiment of straw combined with plastic film mulching in coastal alkaline salines was conducted in this study to explore the effects of different treatments on soil nutrients, enzyme activities and maize yield. Four treatments, including no mulching (NM), straw mulching (SM), plastic film mulching (PM), and straw mulching combined with plastic film mulching (SP), were set up during 2019–2020. In the 0–20 cm soil layer, compared with NM, the soil organic carbon (SOC) and soil catalase activity (SCA) of SM significantly increased by 23.4% and 46.2%, respectively (P < 0.05). The soil total nitrogen (STN), soil available phosphorus (SAP), available potassium (SAK), sucrase activity, urease activity, alkaline phosphatase activity, and maize yield (MY) of SP significantly increased by 40.7, 26.8, 13.9, 34.6, 73.8, 36.2 and 19.0%, respectively (P < 0.05). SOC, STN, SAP, SAK and SCA were significantly correlated with MY. Therefore, straw mulching combined with plastic film mulching has the best effect on increasing soil nutrients, soil enzyme activity, and maize yield and is suitable for promotion and application in coastal alkaline salines.

Keywords: soil covering; soil salinisation improvement; soil fertility; land productivity

Received: July 12, 2023; Revised: December 7, 2023; Accepted: December 11, 2023; Prepublished online: January 12, 2024; Published: January 22, 2024  Show citation

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Liu Z, Zhang M, Wang Z, Shen Y, Zhang D, Zhang S, et al.. Responses of soil nutrients, enzyme activities, and maize yield to straw and plastic film mulching in coastal saline-alkaline. Plant Soil Environ. 2024;70(1):40-47. doi: 10.17221/284/2023-PSE.
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