Crop rotation and tillage effects on organic carbon sequestration in the semiarid southern great plains

Limited information is available regarding soil organic carbon (SOC) distribution and the total amounts that occur in dryland cropping situations in semiarid regions. We determined crop rotation, tillage, and fertilizer effects on SOC distribution and mass in the semiarid southern Great Plains. A cropping system study was conducted for 10-years at Bushland, TX, to compare no-till and stubblemulch management on four dryland cropping systems: continuous wheat (CW) (Triticum aestivum L.); continuous grain sorghum (CS) (Sorghum bicolor [L.] Moench.); wheat/fallow/sorghum/fallow (WSF); and wheat/fallow (WF). Fertilizer (45 kg N ha(-1)) was added at crop planting to main plots. Subplots within each tillage and cropping treatment combination received no fertilizer. Ten years after treatment initiation, soil cores were taken incrementally to a 65-cm depth and subdivided for bulk density and SOC determination. The no-till treatments resulted in significant differences in SOC distribution in the soil profile compared with stubblemulch tillage in all four crop rotations, although differences were largest in the continuous cropping systems. Continuous wheat averaged 1.71% SOC in the surface 2 cm of soil compared with 1.02% SOC with stubblemulch tillage. Continuous sorghum averaged 1.54% SOC in the surface 2 cm of soil in no-till compared with 0.97% SOC with stubblemulch tillage. Total SOC content in the surface 20 cm was increased 5.6 t C ha(-1) in the CW no-till treatment and 2.8 t C ha(-1) in the CS no-till treatment compared with the stubblemulch treatment. Differences were not significantly different between tillage treatments in the WF and WSF systems. No-till management with continuous crops sequestered carbon in comparison to stubblemulch management on the southern Great Plains. Fallow limits carbon accumulation.