Long-term impact of no-till conservation agriculture and N-fertilizer on soil aggregate stability, infiltration and distribution of C in different size fractions

Soil degradation associated with the loss of soil organic carbon (SOC) has been a major concern in sub-Saharan Africa because of the subsequent yield reduction. It is not fully understood how long-term additional C through biomass and N-fertilizers impact on C distribution in soil aggregates and its effects on soil aggregate stability and infiltration in sub-tropical maize monocropping system. The study, therefore, assessed long-term changes in total SOC (TSOC), aggregate-associated C, particulate organic C (POC), aggregate stability and infiltration in the 0–10, 10–20 and 20–30 cm depths under different tillage systems after 13 years of implementation of the trial. The three tillage systems were no-till (NT), rotational tillage (RT) both with permanent residue cover and conventional tillage (CT) with residue removed. N-fertilizer was applied at a rate of 0, 100 and 200 kg/ha. On average TSOC did not vary (p > 0.05) across the tillage treatments, 27.1 t/ha NT vs 26.0 t/ha RT and 26.6 t/ha CT, but varied with depth where it was stratified in the 0–10 cm depth in NT and RT. Particulate organic C, however, varied significantly (p  2000 μm) differed marginally (p = 0.085) with tillage treatment with NT having 38.0 t/ha, RT 36.6 t/ha and CT 29.7 t/ha. However, differences (p < 0.05) were observed in small macroaggregates (250–2000 μm) with NT having 37.8 t/ha, RT 33.5 t/ha and CT 30.4 t/ha in the surface depth. Fertilizer application rate did not seem to affect soil aggregate stability & SOC. The results found a strong effect of residue retention in NT and RT in the soil surface with aggregate stability which, was correlated with the high rate of infiltration rate in these treatments. The results of this study indicate that reduced soil disturbance improves physical protection of SOC, soil structure and infiltration, however, it also indicated that TSOC takes time to improve in maize continuous monocrop system in the studied soil.