Long-term subsoiling and tillage rotation increase carbon storage in soil aggregates and the abundance of autotrophs

Autotrophic microorganisms in soil can increase soil carbon (C) sequestration by utilising chemical energy released from inorganic compounds to fix atmospheric CO2. Therefore, the effects of tillage systems on soil C stocks and autotrophic microbial community deserves in-depth study. The effects of five tillage systems, including no tillage (NoTill), subsoiling (SubS), rotary tillage (RotTill, local general tillage), no tillage-subsoiling-no tillage (NoTill-SubS), and rotary tillage-subsoiling-rotary tillage (RotTill-SubS) were investigated within a 17-year field experiment. Their effects on soil aggregates, C content and enzyme activities were studied, and the impacts on C-fixing microbial communities were analysed using the C-fixing gene cbbL. The macroaggregate portion and RubisCO and ATPase activities were the highest under SubS, causing the aggregate-associated organic C (AOC) to be 93 % higher than that under RotTill. Under RotTill-SubS, SOC, AOC and aggregate-associated microbial biomass C (AMBC) were larger than those under RotTill. RotTill-SubS reduced the microaggregate portion, increased enzyme activities and the relative abundance of C-fixing bacteria, including Sphingomonadales, Burkholderiales, and Nitrosomonadales. The macroaggregate portion under NoTill-SubS and the relative abundance of Sphingomonadales and Burkholderiales was the highest. Correspondingly, the SOC content was the largest (29 % higher than that in RotTill), and the AOC and AMBC contents were 42 % and 31 % larger, respectively, than those in RotTill. Structural equation modelling reveals that increasing tillage or lowering AOC content can directly increase differences in autotrophic bacterial communities. The reduced aggregate stability decreases C content and increases ATPase and RubisCO activities can indirectly increase differences in bacterial community composition.