Jincheng Liang

Soil organic carbon (SOC) largely influences soil quality and sustainability. The effects of no-till (NT) and crop straw return practices (SR) on soil organic carbon sequestration have been well documented. However, the mechanism of soil bacterial community in regulating soil organic carbon under NT and SR remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the impacts of tillage (conventional tillage (CT) and NT) and crop straw return practices (crop straw removal (NS) and SR) on topsoil layer (0–5 cm) bacterial community, CH₄ and CO₂ emissions and SOC fractions in rice-wheat cropping system. Overall, in the wheat season following the annual rice-wheat rotation in two cycles, NT significantly increased SOC by 4.4% for 1–2 mm aggregates in the 0–5 cm soil layer, but decreased CO₂ emissions by 7.4%. Compared with NS, SR notably increased the contents of SOC in the topsoil layer by 6.5% and in macro-aggregate by 17.4% in 0–5 cm soil layer, and promoted CH₄ emissions (by 22.3%) and CO₂ emissions (by 22.4%). The combination of NT and NS resulted in relatively high SOC and low CH₄ emissions along with high bacterial community abundance. The most abundant genus under different treatments was Gp6, which significant impacted SOC and MBC. Bacterial communities like Subdivision3 had the most impact on CH₄ emissions. Structural equation modeling further suggested that the soil bacterial community indirectly mediated the SOC through balancing SOC in 1–2 mm aggregates and CH₄ emissions. This study provides a new idea to reveal the mechanism of short-term tillage and straw return on SOC.