Influence of land management on soil nutrients and microbial biomass in the central loess plateau,northwest China

Loss of soil organic matter under cropping systems is often considered one of the most serious forms of agriculturally induced soil degradation. Therefore, understanding how to improve or maintain soil fertility is of importance for sustainable systems of agriculture. This study deals with the effects of succession fallow and fertilization combined with crop rotation on the chemical properties and microbial biomass of soil in the central Loess Plateau, China. In order to create a more uniform experimental environment and avoid the influence of different crop residues, wheat/potato (W/P) rotation was selected as a fertilization treatment. The results showed that with increasing fallow time organic carbon (Corg) and total nitrogen (TN) slightly increased, microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and MBC/Corg gradually decreased, and microbial biomass nitrogen (MBN) remained unchanged. However, only MBC/Corg among all the microbial parameters measured showed significant differences at various stages of fallow. Although there was a decrease in organic carbon and total nitrogen in the fertilized plots, MBC was not significantly different in the various fallow and fertilized plots except for one‐year‐old fallows, which had the highest MBC. MBN, MBC/Corg and MBN/TN in fertilized plots were higher than for plots at different stages of fallow. Fertilization can increase organic carbon, total nitrogen, MBC and MBN content (compared to the control). It was concluded that appropriate land management, such as fertilization combined with crop rotation and reducing one‐year‐old fallow, would be useful ways to improve or maintain soil fertility. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.