ABSTRACT Can strategic tillage in no‐till help or hinder its benefits of soil organic carbon (SOC) biochemistry and associated functionality? To address this issue, we used three biomarkers—free lipids, lignin phenols, and amino sugars—to quantify SOC characteristics such as composition, lability, and origins, and assessed soil quality and crop yields based on an 8‐year field trial with conventional tillage (CT), no‐till (NT), and strategic tillage (ST) in Northeast China. In the entire 0–30 cm profile, ST raised SOC, lignin phenols, and microbial necromass carbon (MNC) stocks by 21%, 36%, and 24%, respectively, compared to CT, whereas the differences in plant‐derived biomolecules and overall SOC between ST and NT were minimal. Instead, NT exhibited stratified free lipids, showing higher microbial‐, plant‐derived, and total lipids by 28%, 25%, and 33%, respectively, than CT in topsoil. Both NT and ST increased lignin phenols by 36% and 109% in the 0–20 cm layer compared to CT, emphasizing the preserved plant‐derived compounds. ST again displayed higher levels of fungal and total MNC by 28%–43% and 23%–34%, respectively, than CT and NT in sublayers (> 5 cm), indicating the buildup of distinct microbial‐derived compounds. Both ST and NT significantly outperformed CT in terms of soil quality index and corn yields, highlighting their long‐term effectiveness. Collectively, ST could be recommended as a promising option to alleviate the limitations of no‐till farming by accumulating plant and microbial molecules and improving soil quality in a Mollisol.
Ma et al. (Sun,) studied this question.