Plant Soil (2010) 331:471–480
DOI 10.1007/s11104-009-0268-7
REGULAR ARTICLE
The role of chemical and organic fertilizers on yield,
yield variability and carbon sequestration— results
of a 19-year experiment
Xiaoyuan Yan & Wei Gong
Received: 18 September 2009 / Accepted: 14 December 2009 / Published online: 15 January 2010
# Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010
Abstract Fertilization practice in the North China
Plain has been changing since the late 1970s. To
evaluate how organic and chemical fertilizers contrib-
ute to yield, yield variability and soil carbon seques-
tration, we analyzed wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)
yield data in a long-term fertilization experiment that
began in 1989, conducted pot experiments using soils
from the long-term fertilization experiment plots, and
simulated the soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics of
individual treatments in the long-term experiments.
Wheat yield results showed that when organic
fertilizer was used as an alternative nutrient source
for chemical fertilizers, it was neither directly bene-
ficial to crop yield, nor decreased yield variability
when compared to a balanced chemical fertilizer.
However, there was a linear relationship between
yield trend and SOC change rate (r = 0.951, P<0.01).
The use of organic fertilizer increased SOC and soil
fertility and consequently resulted in a larger yield
trend when compared to a balanced chemical fertilizer.
Responsible Editor: Peter Christie.
X. Yan (*) : W. Gong
State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture,
Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences,
Nanjing 210008, China
e-mail: yanxy@issas.ac.cn
W. Gong
Sichuan Provincial Key Laboratory of Ecological Forestry
Engineering, Sichuan Agricultural University,
Ya’an 625014, China
Roth-C model simulation and pot experimental results
indicated that soils with higher SOC had a higher root/
shoot ratio. Therefore, the long-term use of organic
fertilizer not only directly increases SOC, but indirect-
ly contributes to carbon sequestration by favoring root
development. We found that yield variability was
determined by the relative contributions of soil fertility
and fertilizer to yield (the contribution of fertilizer to
yield is the yield difference between fertilized and
unfertilized treatments). The contribution of balanced
chemical fertilizer to yield was higher than that of
organic fertilizer, resulting in less yield variability in
balanced chemical fertilizer treatment. However, if
organic fertilizer was used as a complementary nutrient
source with chemical fertilizers, it would increase the
contribution of fertilizers to yield, thus decreasing
yield variability.
Keywords Long-term experiment . Yield variability .
Yield trend . Roth-C model . Carbon sequestration
Introduction
The application of organic fertilizer to maintain soil
fertility and crop yield has been practiced for
thousands of years in China (Dormaar et al. 1988).
With the increased accessibility to chemical fertilizers
starting in the late 1970s and the rise in labor costs
from the 1980s, the use of organic fertilizer has
declined dramatically (Zhu and Chen 2002). Crop
472
residue and animal waste are the major raw materials
of organic fertilizer. When crop residue is not returned
to croplands, it is most likely burned in fields thus
causing atmospheric pollution (Yan et al. 2006). A
significant proportion of animal waste that was not
applied to cropland was discharged into surface water
and has become a major nitrogen source of surface
and ground water (Xing et al. 2001). In addition, the
use of organic fertilizer is considered an effective way
of increasing soil carbon sequestration (Lal 2004). For
these reasons, the government and scientists have
been encouraging the use of organic fertilizer in
recent years.
The effect of these changes in farming practice on
agricultural sustainability and global change is best
monitored by long-term agroecosystem experiments
(Rasmussen et al. 1998). However, while the use of
organic fertilizer generally slows down any decrease
or tends to increase the SOC pool, its effects on yield
trends (average yield change rate over a period of
time) are not consistent as reflected by long-term
experiments (Dawe et al. 2003). Organic fertilizer
showed positive effects on yield trend in some long-
term experiments (e.g., Bi et al. 2009) but not in
others (e.g., Jiang et al. 2006). Zhang et al. (2009)
showed that the significance of organic fertilizer on
yield trend varies in different types of soil and
cropping systems and suggested that a positive yield
trend might have been caused by gradual improve-
ment in soil organic carbon (SOC) and soil physical
properties through the use of organic fertilizer.
The North China Plain covers an area of
178,700 km2, of which 88,500 km2 is cultivated
farmland (Lin et al. 2000). A double-cropping
rotation system consisting of winter wheat and
summer maize is the main cropping system adopted
in this major grain-producing region (Zhu et al. 1994).
This is a highly productive agricultural area and is
often referred to as “China's breadbasket” (Shi 2003).
The sustainable utilization of agricultural soil in this
area could affect China's food security. Moreover, the
soil carbon content of croplands in this area is low as
compared to other main agricultural regions in China
(Pan 1999); thus, it has a high potential for carbon
sequestration through appropriate management.
A long-term experiment has been established in
this region to monitor the effects of organic and
chemical fertilizers on crop yield and soil fertility. Cai
and Qin (2006) reported the yield, yield variability
Plant Soil (2010) 331:471–480
and the changes of SOC of all treatments up to 2003
in the experiment. They found that the yield of
balanced chemical fertilizer treatment was higher
and more stable than that of organic fertilizer
treatment, although the later had a higher SOC
content. Hence they argued that the effects of soil
organic matter on crop production were negligible
in the soil, and the application of organic manure
without chemical fertilizers does not deliver high
and steady yield in the region. However, an in-depth
analysis of how organic and chemical fertilizers
contributed to SOC change, yield variability, and
yield trend was lacking in the study of Cai and Qin
(2006). In the current study, using yield and SOC data
of the long-term experiment up to 2007, results of a
pot experiment with soils from the long-term exper-
iment, and model analysis, we found a clear relation-
ship between yield trend (average yield change rate
over the experimental years) and SOC changes,
different SOC change mechanisms of organic and
chemical fertilizers, and the influencing factor of yield
variability.
Materials and methods
Long-term field experiment
A long-term field experiment was established in 1989
on a Fluvo-Aquic soil in Fengqiu, Henan province,
China (35°00′N, 114°24′E), with a winter wheat–
summer maize rotation, which is typical of the North
China Plain. The 30-year mean annual temperature of
the site was 13.9°C, and the lowest and highest mean
monthly temperatures were −1.0°C in January and
27.2°C in July, respectively. The mean annual
precipitation was 615 mm, two-thirds of which fell
between June and September. The field was not
fertilized for 3 years before the start of the experiment
in September 1989 and thus soil fertility was low. The
0–20 cm soil had a SOC content of 4.42 g kg−1, total
N of 0.45 g kg−1, total P of 0.50 g kg−1, total K of
18.6 g kg−1, available P (OLSEN-P) of 1.9 mg kg−1,
and available K of 78.8 mg kg−1. The experiment
included seven fertilization treatments, i.e., (1) CK
(no fertilizer); (2) NP (150 kg N ha−1 +75 kg P2O5 ha−1
for winter wheat, and 150 kg N ha−1 + 60 kg P2O5 ha−1
for summer maize); (3) PK (75 kg P2O5 ha−1 +150 kg
K2O ha−1 for winter wheat, and 60 kg P2O5 ha−1 +
Plant Soil (2010) 331:471–480
150 kg K2O ha−1 for summer maize); (4) NK
(150 kg N ha−1 +150 kg K2O ha−1 for both winter
wheat and summer maize); (5) NPK (150 kg N ha−1 +
75 kg P2O5 ha−1 +150 kg K2O ha−1 for winter wheat,
and 150 kg N ha−1 +60 kg P2O5 ha−1 + 150 kg K2O
ha−1 for summer maize); (6) OM (organic fertilizer
equivalent to 150 kg N ha−1, additional chemical
fertilizers were applied to make the total phosphorus
and potassium input equal to that of the NPK
treatment); (7) 1/2OM (half the amount of the
chemical fertilizers applied in the NPK treatment
and half the amount of the organic fertilizer applied in
the OM treatment). Each treatment had four replicates
and the 28 plots of 48 m2 each were arranged in
random blocks.
The chemical nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium
fertilizers used were urea, calcium superphosphate,
and potassium sulfate, respectively. Nitrogen fertilizer
was applied in two splits, 60 kg N ha−1 as basal
fertilizer and 90 kg N ha−1 as supplemental fertilizer
for maize, and 90 kg N ha−1 as basal fertilizer and
60 kg N ha−1 as supplemental fertilizer for wheat in
the NPK, NP, and NK treatments. All phosphorus and
potassium, and organic fertilizers were applied as
basal fertilizers. The organic fertilizer was made from
wheat straw, oil rapeseed cake, and cottonseed cake
after composting. The field was irrigated 2–3 times in
wheat season and 1–2 times in maize season, depend-
ing upon precipitation.
Grain yield and crop residue were recorded for
each crop season and the total SOC content of 0–
20 cm soils was measured once a year after harvest of
summer maize using the wet oxidation method with
133 mmol L−1 K2Cr2O7 at 170–180°C.
Pot experiment
The yield of each crop season in the long-term
experiment is the result of soil productivity and
fertilizer applied in that season. Both soil fertility
and fertilizer among treatments are different and thus
it is difficult to differentiate the effects of soil fertility
and fertilizer from the yield data of the long-term
experiment. To solve this problem, a pot experiment
with winter wheat was set up in the fall of 2007 with
soils from different treatments in the long-term
experiment. After harvest of the summer maize in
2007, the top 20 cm soils were collected from each of
the 28 field plots of the long-term experiment. A total
473
of 50 soil cores, each representing about 1 m2 field
area, were collected from each plot with a soil core
sampler of 5 cm diameter. The collected soil from
each field plot was then air-dried, passed through
5 mm mesh, and divided into three PVC pots with a
diameter of 25 cm and a height of 25 cm for three
sub-treatments. The first pot was unfertilized. The
second pot was fertilized with balanced NPK at the
same rate (calculated on an area basis) as in the NPK
treatment of the original long-term field experiment.
The third pot was fertilized with chemical or organic
fertilizer at the same rate (calculated on an area basis)
as the original treatment in the long-term field
experiment. The soil in each pot was 5.5 kg of
oven-dried equivalent. All pots were buried in a field
neighboring to the long-term experiment in a com-
pletely random manner. Soil moisture was adjusted to
60% field capacity before sowing. Twenty-five wheat
seeds were sown to each plot in mid-October 2007,
and 15 seedlings of similar size were left and the
others were removed 7 days after germination. At
wheat harvest in June 2008, the wheat grain and the
residue were oven-dried and measured. All visible
roots remaining in the soil were picked out, oven-
dried and measured to calculate root/shoot ratio.
Modeling of soil organic carbon dynamics
To distinguish the contributions of organic fertilizer
and plant growth to soil carbon sequestration, the
dynamics of SOC in each treatment of the long-term
field experiment was simulated using the Roth-C
26.3 model (Coleman and Jenkinson 1999). The
model splits SOC into four active components: RPM
(resistant plant material), DPM (decomposable plant
material), BIO (microbial biomass), HUM (humified
organic matter) and a small amount of inert organic
matter (IOM). The initial ratio of RPM, DPM, BIO,
HUM, and IOM in 1989 was assumed to be 14.0%,
0.15%, 2.04%, 75.13% and 8.68%, respectively (mean
values for arable land at equilibrium; Zimmermann et
al. 2007) . Incoming plant carbon was assumed to
have a DPM/RPM ratio of 1.44, and the compost was
split into 49% DPM, 49% RPM and 2% HUM, as a
default value setting for agricultural plant material
and farmyard manure (Coleman and Jenkinson 1999).
The clay content of the soil is 9% (Cai and Qin 2006).
Average monthly weather information was obtained
from a weather station installed at the same site in the
474
field. A soil cover factor of 1 was assumed all year
round as two crops are planted each year. Carbon
input from plant (stubble, root, and root exudates)
was estimated by above-ground biomass using a
root/shoot ratio described in detail in the Results
section.
Data analysis
Yield stability is important for food security. The
yield stability of a cropping system can be assessed
by measuring the variability of yields across environ-
ments. In this paper, we used the spatial variability
and temporal variability to reflect yield stability. We
defined spatial and temporal variability of yield of a
fertilizer treatment in the following equations:
n  
1X STDi
Vs ¼  100%
n I¼1 MEANi
Where Vs is the spatial yield variability of a
specific treatment, n is the number of experimental
years, STDi is the standard deviation of the four
replicates of the treatment in the ith year, MEANi is
the average yield of the four replicates of the
treatment in the ith year.
4  
1X STDr
Vt ¼  100%
4 r¼1 MEANr
Where Vt is the temporal yield variability of a
specific treatment, r is the number of field replicates
of the treatment, STDr is the standard deviation for the
yield of the rth replicate over the experimental years,
MEANr is the average yield of rth replicates over the
experimental years.
The results of the pot experiment were used to
distinguish the contribution of soil fertility and
fertilizer to wheat by using the following equation:
Yieldo  Yieldc
Cfert ¼  100%
Yieldo
Where Cfert is the contribution of fertilizer to wheat
yield in percentage, Yieldo (g pot−1) is the wheat yield
of the sub-treatment of the pot experiment that kept
the original fertilization scheme, Yieldc (g pot−1) is the
wheat yield of sub-treatment in the pot experiment
that received no fertilizer.
Post hoc multiple comparisons for yield and SOC
of treatments in the long-term experiment, and yield
Plant Soil (2010) 331:471–480
and root/shoot ratio of treatments in the pot experi-
ment were performed using one-way ANOVA with
Tukey HSD test. Yield variability (spatial and
temporal) of treatments in the long-term experiment
was plotted against SOC content in 2007, soil
productivity and the contribution of fertilizer to yield,
then Pearson correlation analysis was performed.
Both yield trend and SOC change trend of each
treatment in the long-term experiment were derived
by regressing the yield or SOC over time (year), then
the yield trend was plotted against the SOC change
trend and simple linear regression was performed. All
statistical procedures were conducted using statistical
software package SPSS 13.0 for Windows (SPSS,
Chicago, IL).
Results
Wheat yield, yield variability and yield trend
The long-term experimental field was cropped with
winter wheat and summer maize annually. The
treatment effects on the yields of winter wheat and
summer maize were similar. Therefore, we used only
the yield data of winter wheat to illustrate yield
variability and yield trend.
The average wheat yields from 1990 to 2008 for
the different treatments are shown in Fig. 1. Signif-
icant differences in yield were found among the
treatments except between the CK and NK treatments.
The best yield was found in the NPK treatment,
followed by 1/2OM, NP and OM treatments. The
original soil was rich in potassium; therefore, although
no potassium was applied to the NP treatment, the
average yield of this treatment over 19 years was only
3% lower than the 1/2OM treatment and 23% higher
than the OM treatment. During the first 10 years, the
yield with the NP treatment was not significantly
different from the NPK treatment (P>0.05). The yield
gap between the NPK and NP treatments began to
increase only after 10 years in the absence of
potassium application in the NP treatment. As usual,
the lowest yield was found in the CK treatment.
However, the yield with the NK treatment was not
significantly different from that of CK since both had
an extreme deficiency of phosphorus.
Figure 2 shows the relationship between yield
variability and SOC content in 2007. Irrespective of
Plant Soil (2010) 331:471–480 475

6000
spatial or temporal yield variability, no significant
Average wheat yield (kg ha-1)

5000 a b
4000
3000
2000
1000
0 long-term field experiment to conduct a pot experi-
NPK 1/2OM
Fig. 1 Average wheat yield from 1990 to 2008 as affected by
fertilization. Bars with different letters are significantly different
at P<0.05. Error bars Standard deviation (n=4). Treatments:
CK no fertilizer; NP 150 kg N ha−1 +75 kg P2O5 ha−1 for winter
wheat, and 150 kg N ha−1 + 60 kg P2O5 ha−1 for summer
maize; PK 75 kg P2O5 ha−1 +150 kg K2O ha−1 for winter
wheat, and 60 kg P2O5 ha−1 +150 kg K2O ha−1 for summer
maize; NK 150 kg N ha−1 +150 kg K2O ha−1 for both winter
wheat and summer maize; NPK 150 kg N ha−1 +75 kg P2O5
ha−1 +150 kg K2O ha−1 for winter wheat, and 150 kg N ha−1 +
60 kg P2O5 ha−1 + 150 kg K2O ha−1 for summer maize; OM
organic fertilizer equivalent to 150 kg N ha−1 (additional
chemical fertilizers were applied to make the total phosphorus
and potassium input equal to that of the NPK treatment); 1/
2OM half the amount of the chemical fertilizers applied in the
NPK treatment and half the amount of the organic fertilizer
applied in the OM treatment
c
effect of SOC content was observed (P>0.05).
It is unsurprising that a clear relationship between
d
SOC content and yield variability was not observed,
since the soils in the different treatments differed not
only in SOC content, but also in other nutrient supply
as a result of long-term fertilization. A more direct
e
f f
indicator is soil productivity. As described in Materials
and methods, we collected soil from each plot of the
NP OM PK NK CK
ment; soil from each field plot was divided into three
Treatments
sub-treatments. One pot was planted with winter wheat
without any fertilizer, thus wheat yield in this sub-
treatment can be taken as a relative indicator of soil
productivity. Figure 3 shows that while both spatial
variability and temporal variability showed a decreasing
trend with increasing soil productivity, the relationship
between spatial variability and soil productivity was
significant (p<0.05), and that between temporal vari-
ability and soil productivity was not (P>0.05).
Crop yield can be attributed to soil fertility
(including atmospheric depositions of nutrients,
which include 15–50 kg N ha−1 year−1 in North China
Plain (Zhang et al. 2008)) and fertilizer. A significant
negative relationship (P<0.01) was found between
yield variability and the contribution of fertilizer to

45
Temporal variability
40 NK
Spatial variability
45
NK 35 PK
Temporal variability CK
40
Yield variability (%)

PK Spatial variability 30
35
CK 25 OM
Yield variability (%)

30
20
OM 1/2OM
25
15
NP NPK
20
10 NK PK
1/2OM
15 NPK OM
5 CK NP NPK 1/2OM
NP
10 NK
PK 0
CK 1/2OM OM 0 2 4 6 8
5 NP NPK
Soil productivity (g grain pot-1)
0
3 5 7 9 11 Fig. 3 Relationship between yield stability and soil productiv-
-1 ity. Soil productivity was reflected by wheat yields in soils that
SOC content in 2007 (g kg )
received different fertilizers in the field experiment but was not
Fig. 2 Relationship between yield stability and soil organic fertilized during the pot experiment. Pearson’s correlation
carbon (SOC) content in 2007. Pearson’s correlation between SOC between soil productivity content and spatial variability was
content and spatial variability was −0.527 (P>0.05), and that −0.825 (P < 0.05), and that between SOC and temporal
between SOC and temporal variability was −0.322 (P>0.05) variability was −0.651 (P>0.05)
476 Plant Soil (2010) 331:471–480

7000
yield (Fig. 4). Yield variability increases when crop NPK
1/2OM y = 63.274x - 121783
yield becomes more dependent on soil fertility (e.g., 6000 2

Wheat yield (kg ha-1)

y = 75.873x - 147058 R = 0.4345
receiving no fertilizer or unbalanced fertilizer). 5000 2
R = 0.4026
Figure 4 indicates that balanced fertilization with
4000
NPK helped to increase the contribution of fertilizer
to crop yield and thus reduce yield variability. 3000
NP
Figure 5 represents the yield trend of treatments 2000 OM y = 20.73x - 36959
2
NPK, NP, OM and 1/2OM in the long-term experi- y = 108.72x - 213708 R = 0.0634
1000 2
ments. All these treatments resulted in an increasing R = 0.3654

yield trend, but the yield for OM increased much 0

faster than the others, which was followed by 1/2OM
treatment. When the slope of a linear regression curve
was used to indicate yield trend, it had a significant
linear relationship with the changing trend of soil
organic matter (Fig. 6). Ninety percent of the yield
trend can be explained by changes in soil organic
matter, and the regression line showed that wheat
yield increased by 378.5 kg ha−1 per 1 g C kg−1
increase in soil organic matter (Fig. 6).
Effect of organic and inorganic fertilizer on SOC
changes
To illustrate the different mechanisms of SOC change
as affected by the use of organic and inorganic
fertilizers, we simulated SOC dynamics of the different
treatments using the Roth-C model (Coleman and
45
40
Temporal yield variability (%)
1990 1995 2000 2005
Year
Fig. 5 Yield trend of OM (□), 1/2OM (○), NPK (●), and NP
(×) treatments. Determination coefficients are shown, and the
statistical significance level of trend is 0.006 for OM, 0.004 for
1/2OM, 0.002 for NPK, and 0.298 for NP treatments,
respectively
Jenkinson 1999). Soil carbon change is the net result of
carbon input and decomposition. For treatments with-
out organic fertilizer application, carbon inputs were
stubble, root and root exudates. This part of the carbon
input is mostly from below-ground factors and thus
difficult to quantify and usually estimated from above-
ground biomass by using the root/shoot ratio. As a
result, the root/shoot ratio is a critical and sensitive
parameter to the simulation results of Roth-C (Janik et
al. 2002). However, the root/shoot ratio obtained from
9 the pot experiment cannot be used to estimate the plant
8 carbon input in field conditions. This is because the root/

NK shoot ratio in the pot experiment counted only roots that

Spatial yield variability (%)

35 CK 7
remained visible in soil at the end of the experiment, and
30 PK 6

25 5 140
20 4
OM 120
Wheat yield trend (kg ha-1 yr-1)

15 3 y = 378.5x + 13.834
100 R2 = 0.9046
10 1/2OM 2
NP
NPk 80
5 1
60
0 0
0 20 40 60 80
40
Contribution of fertilizer to yield (%)
20
Fig. 4 Relationship between yield stability and the contribu-
tion of fertilizer to yield. Open symbols Temporal yield 0
variability, filled symbols spatial variability. Different shape or -0.1 0 0.1 0.2 0.3
size of symbols indicates the different treatments in the long- -20
term experiment (see Fig. 1). Pearson’s correlation between Average annual change of SOC (g kg-1 yr-1)
spatial yield variability and fertilizer contribution to yield was
−0.973 (P<0.01), and that between temporal yield variability Fig. 6 Relationship between wheat yield trend and SOC
and fertilizer contribution to yield was −0.955 (P<0.01) change rate
Plant Soil (2010) 331:471–480
the real plant carbon input includes all roots, root
exudates, stubbles, and litter input from crop during the
whole crop season. Thus, the root/shoot ratio in the
long-term field experiment can only be estimated.
Root/shoot ratio is influenced greatly by nutrient
supply. Ericsson (1995) clearly showed that the root/
shoot ratio increased when nitrogen and phosphorus
were in stress and decreased when potassium was in
stress. To better simulate the carbon dynamics of the
balanced fertilization treatment NPK, we used a root/
shoot ratio of 0.23 for both the wheat and maize
season. This value is very close to that of Alkhafaf et
al. (1989)—both soils had a texture of loamy sand
and a clay content of 9%. However, if we use the
same root/shoot value for all treatments, the carbon
content would be underestimated for all other treat-
ments except the NPK and NP treatment. Therefore
we adjusted the root/shoot ratio for each treatment
until the simulated SOC contents matched the
measured SOC dynamics. The estimated root/shoot
ratio was 0.5 for the CK and PK treatment, 0.51 for
NK treatment, 0.23 for NP and NPK treatment, 0.28
for 1/2OM treatment, and 0.34 for OM treatment, and
the simulated results are shown in Fig. 7. In
agreement with Ericsson (1995), the root/shoot ratios
for CK, NK and PK treatments were larger than that
of the NPK treatment, as nitrogen and phosphorus
were deficient in these treatments. The estimated root/
shoot ratio of NP was the same as that of the NPK
10
9 of organic fertilizer on this soil. This is in agreement
8
7 confer any advantage to crop yields that cannot be
SOC (g kg-1)
6
5 NP
4
OM 1/2OM NPK NP
3 with low initial organic matter content. Díaz-Zorita et
PK NK CK
2
1989 1992 1995 1998 2001
Year
Fig. 7 Roth-C simulated SOC dynamics of different treat-
ments. Solid lines Simulated values at the end of each year,
symbols SOC measured in September
477
treatment although no potassium fertilizer was ap-
plied. This was likely because the soil was rich in
potassium, as was reflected by crop yield. Crop yield
in the NP treatment was not affected for the first
10 years when compared to that of the NPK treatment
(Cai and Qin 2006). It is worth noting that the
estimated root/shoot ratio of 1/2OM and OM treat-
ments was also larger than that of the NPK treatment.
Discussion
There is compelling evidence that organic fertilizer
increases crop yield if it is applied to provide
additional nutrients on the basis of inorganic fertilizer
application (Dawe et al. 2003; Jiang et al. 2006).
Organic fertilizers not only provide macronutrients
that are otherwise provided by chemical fertilizer, but
also have other benefits such as providing micro-
nutrients (Li et al. 2007), and improving soil chemical
and physical properties by increasing soil organic
matter (Fraser et al. 1994; Bhandari et al. 2002).
However, when it is used as an alternative nutrient
source for chemical fertilizers, its effect on crop yields
is inconsistent. The three treatments NPK, 1/2OM and
OM in the long-term experiment had the same amount
of total nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium input.
However, the yield of the NPK treatment was
significantly higher than that of 1/2OM (P<0.05),
which again was significantly higher than that of the
OM treatment (P<0.05), indicating that the nutrient
OM use efficiency of inorganic fertilizer is higher than that
with the conclusion of Edmeades (2003), who
1/2OM reported that organic fertilizers do not generally
derived from the application of chemical fertilizers.
NPK
However, organic fertilizers increased SOC con-
tent, which had a significant positive linear relation-
ship with yield trend, suggesting that the use of
PK
NK organic fertilizer would benefit crop yield in the long
CK
term. This effect would be more significant on soils
al. (1999) also reported that wheat yields of 134
2004 2007 production fields over 3 years were linearly related to
total SOC when initial organic matter content was
<17.5 g kg−1.
For intensive rice systems (rice–rice or rice–
wheat), Dawe et al. (2003) concluded that the
478
application of organic fertilizer did not improve grain
trend. This was probably because yield trend was not
significant for most of the cropping systems they
analyzed. On the other hand, they found that the yield
trend in the organic fertilizer treatment was consis-
tently better than those in the NPK treatments. For
example, the yield trend in the organic fertilizer
treatment for the 29 rice crops was 0.21% per year,
compared to −0.55% per year in the NPK treatment
for the same crops, and the yield trend in the organic
fertilizer treatment for the 18 wheat crops was
−0.16% per year, compared to −0.50% per year in
the NPK treatments for the same crops (Dawe et al.
2003). In a double rice system, Bi et al. (2009) found
a significant positive effect of organic fertilizer on
yield trends except for those with insufficient nutrient
supply, and attributed the positive effect to increased
SOC and soil nutrient capacity due to the long-term
application of organic fertilizer.
Our result that there was no clear relationship
between SOC content and yield variability differs
from that of Pan et al. (2009) who reported a
significant negative relationship between the yield
variability of cereals and soil organic matter content at
the province scale in China between 1949 and 1998.
At this large scale, yield viability may be affected by
many other factors such as climate, fertilizer applica-
tion, crop variety and other soil properties.
Figure 4 suggests that the contribution of fertilizer
to yield is a better indicator of yield variability than
soil organic matter or soil productivity. Balanced
chemical fertilizer generally increases the contribution
of fertilizer to crop yield, thus helping to decrease
yield variability. When organic fertilizer was used to
provide nutrients instead of chemical fertilizer (such
as treatment OM and 1/2OM), its contribution to crop
yield decreased as compared to balanced chemical
fertilizer, thus yield variability increased. However,
this does not mean that the application of organic
fertilizer is detrimental to yield stability. When
organic fertilizer was used as an additional nutrient
source, it was expected that the contribution of
fertilizer to crop yield would increase, and thus result
in decreased yield variability. As shown by Li (1993),
the application of high amounts of organic manure
combined with chemical fertilizer resulted in smaller
variations in yield compared to the control treatments.
The soil in the long-term experiment had a low
initial organic carbon content. After 19 years of
Plant Soil (2010) 331:471–480
chemical or organic fertilization, SOC contents
increased significantly in all treatments except CK
and NK treatments, which had an extreme deficiency
of phosphorous. The increase in SOC content under
organic fertilizer treatments was a result of direct
addition of organic materials and/or fertilizer-
stimulated plant carbon input through roots, root
exudates and stubbles. However, our model analysis
indicated an indirect effect of organic fertilization on
soil carbon sequestration, i.e., root growth was
favored. Results from the pot experiment proved that
the long-term use of organic fertilizer did increase
root/shoot ratio as compared to the balanced fertilizer
treatment NPK (Table 1).
The larger root/shoot ratios of the treatments that
received organic fertilizer (OM and 1/2OM) may have
resulted from a deficiency in the mineral nutrients
nitrogen and phosphorus, especially in the OM
treatment. However, in the pot experiment, when
chemical fertilizer NPK was added to soils with the
original treatments of OM and 1/2OM, wheat yields
(11.78 and 10.99 g pot−1 for OM and 1/2OM,
respectively) were higher than that of the NPK
treatment (10.41 g pot−1), indicating that, in this
situation, the soils in the OM and 1/2OM treatment
were no longer deficient in nitrogen and phosphorus.
The root/shoot ratios of the NPK sub-treatments with
the original treatment of OM and 1/2OM were still
significantly higher than that of the NPK treatment
(Table 1), suggesting that enhanced organic matter
content resulting from organic fertilizer application
favored root growth.
For this reason, organic fertilizer will benefit soil
carbon sequestration in three aspects. First, it directly
adds organic materials to soil; second, it increases
root and root exudate input by stimulating crop
growth; and third, it enhances root growth through
mechanisms such as improving soil physical condi-
tions (e.g., the soil bulk density of OM and 1/2OM
treatments was lower than those of chemical fertilizer
treatments; Gong et al. 2009). In the present study, to
distinguish the contributions of these three factors to
the SOC increase in the 1/2OM and OM treatments,
we ran the model for two different cases. We first
assumed organic fertilizer had the same effect on
plant carbon input as that of NPK treatment (a root/
shoot ratio of 0.23) and no direct carbon input from
fertilizer. The net carbon gain in this case was
assumed to result from normal plant growth. We then
Plant Soil (2010) 331:471–480 479

Table 1 Yield and root/shoot ratio of wheat in the pot experiment (average±standard deviation; n=4). Soils were fertilized either with NPK
or the same treatments as in the long-term field experimenta. Different letters in the same column are significantly different at P<0.05

Treatment in SOC before pot Yield (g pot−1) Root/shoot ratio

long-term field experiment
experiment (g kg−1) Fertilizer treatment in Fertilizer treatment in
pot experiment pot experiment

Same as in field NPK Same as in field NPK

experiment experiment

OM 9.41±0.45aa 9.63±0.77a 11.78±2.64a 0.115±0.014ab 0.100±0.014a

1/2OM 7.16±0.56b 9.91±0.43a 10.99±1.54a 0.104±0.006ab 0.092±0.006ab
NPK 5.59±0.42c 10.41±0.92a 10.41±0.92a 0.066±0.011c 0.066±0.011b
NP 5.21±0.46c 9.61±0.89a 10.29±0.76a 0.063±0.010c 0.076±0.008ab
PK 4.85±0.33cd 3.92±0.32b 10.24±1.93a 0.099±0.023ab 0.090±0.013ab
NK 4.23±0.33d 0.33±0.05c 6.27±0.96b 0.262±0.050a 0.094±0.014ab
CK 3.92±0.36d 0.23±0.03c 5.61±0.82b 0.293±0.084a 0.099±0.015a
a
Treatments: CK no fertilizer; NP 150 kg N ha−1 +75 kg P2O5 ha−1 for winter wheat, and 150 kg N ha−1 + 60 kg P2O5 ha−1 for
summer maize; PK 75 kg P2O5 ha−1 +150 kg K2O ha−1 for winter wheat, and 60 kg P2O5 ha−1 +150 kg K2O ha−1 for summer maize;
NK 150 kg N ha−1 +150 kg K2O ha−1 for both winter wheat and summer maize; NPK 150 kg N ha−1 +75 kg P2O5 ha−1 +150 kg K2O
ha−1 for winter wheat, and 150 kg N ha−1 +60 kg P2O5 ha−1 + 150 kg K2O ha−1 for summer maize; OM organic fertilizer equivalent
to 150 kg N ha−1 (additional chemical fertilizers were applied to make the total phosphorus and potassium input equal to that of the
NPK treatment); 1/2OM half the amount of the chemical fertilizers applied in the NPK treatment and half the amount of the organic
fertilizer applied in the OM treatment

assumed organic fertilizer has a stimulating effect on
root growth (a root/shoot ratio of 0.28 for 1/2OM and
0.34 for OM treatment, as estimated previously). The
increased carbon gain in this case was assumed to
result from enhanced root growth due to the use of
organic fertilizer. The actual carbon gain that was not
results in higher SOC and consequently a larger yield
trend. The use of organic fertilizer not only directly
increases SOC, but also indirectly contributes to
carbon sequestration by favoring root development.
6 Direct input

accounted for by these two factors was assumed to Inhanced root growth

result directly from organic matter input. As shown in Normal plant growth
5
Fig. 8, of the total SOC increase of 3.11 gkg−1 in the
Increase in SOC (g kg-1)

1/2OM treatment, 29%, 20%, and 51% were contrib-

uted by normal plant growth, enhanced root growth, 4

and direct organic carbon input, respectively; and of

the 5.06 g kg−1 SOC increase in the OM treatment, 3
14%, 25%, and 61% were attributed to normal plant
growth, enhanced root growth, and direct organic
2
carbon input, respectively.

1
Conclusions
0
When organic fertilizer is used as an alternative 1/2OM OM
nutrient source to chemical fertilizers, it neither
Fig. 8 Estimated contribution of normal plant growth, en-
directly benefits crop yield—at least in the first
hanced root growth due to long term use of organic fertilizer,
19 years in our experiment—nor decreases yield and direct input of organic fertilizer to SOC increases in OM
variability. However, the use of organic fertilizer and 1/2OM treatments
480
Yield variability is determined by the contributions of
soil fertility and fertilizer to yield. The contribution of
balanced chemical fertilizer to yield is more than that
of organic fertilizer, resulting in less yield variability
in balanced chemical fertilizer treatment. However,
when organic fertilizer is used as a complementary
nutrient source with chemical fertilizers, it increases
the contribution of fertilizers to yield, and thus
decreases yield variability.
Acknowledgment This research was funded by the Knowl-
edge Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Science
(Project No: kzcx2-yw-312, kzcx2-yw-406-2).
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