Cropping systems and agricultural management strategies affect soil organic carbon dynamics in semi-arid regions

Introduction Soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamic is one of the important factors that directly influence soil properties and quality. In agro-ecosystems, SOC dynamics are strongly linked to agricultural management practices. Methods this study, we investigated response its fractions various combination practices based on measurements obtained from an experiment conducted over four growing seasons 2018 2020 in Ahvaz, Iran. The experimental treatments involved three strategies combined with crop rotation systems. comprised conventional (CON: mineral fertilizer, removal all residues), (ORG: 30% return residues soil), integrated (INT: mineral/organic 15% residues) strategies. systems were: fallow-wheat (F-W), corn-wheat (C-W), sesame-wheat (S-W), mung bean-wheat (B-W). samples were collected SOC, labile-C, non-labile-C measured. Results discussion After two years experiment, no significant improvement was found CON strategy ( p ≤ 0.05). ORG INT contained average 1.1 1.06 times more than strategy, respectively. value labile-C decreased during summer cultivations increased after winter cultivations. However, although quantity (2 g kg −1 ) higher (1.83 (1.87 overall time, second cultivation despite gradual accumulation matter due high levels temperature humidity, content reduced to1.47 . strategies, according following descending order B-W (5.7 > C-W (5.29 S-W (5.23 F-W (4.52 ). Therefore, for region M-W recommended addition (which most common system). beneficial C-sequestration when inorganic fertilization residue incorporation. This study gives promising results implementing under long-term cropping containing crops wheat improving semi-arid regions