Organic amendment effects on cropland soil organic carbon and its implications: A global synthesis

Increasing soil organic carbon (SOC) content can promote soil health and crop yield. Organic amendment application is a common practice to accelerate soil carbon sequestration in cropland. The effects of different organic amendments (e.g., compost, slurry) on SOC are uncertain. Previous studies have investigated SOC response to environmental factors but not well addressed the effect of organic amendment characteristics (e.g., source, liquid/solid form, pH). Depending on 1,972 comparisons from 424 articles, we undertook a meta-analysis approach to explore organic amendment effects on SOC content and the related influence factors. The results show that organic amendment addition increased SOC by an average of 26.9% (or 5.1 Mg C ha⁻¹). Specifically, organic amendments can enhance SOC over the long term (>20 years) or within 1.0 m depth. Organic-residue inputs increased more SOC in regions with an arid climate, alkaline soils, or no-mineral nitrogen application soils than the humid climate regions, acidic soils, and nitrogen application soils, respectively. Sewage sludge and municipal solid waste as organic amendments led to high SOC. The organic amendments' pH and liquid/solid form caused significant differences in SOC accumulation. Amendments with a relatively low carbon content or rich nitrogen content have great potential to increase SOC storage. Our results illustrate the importance of amendment characteristics when estimating the potential of organic amendment addition to soil carbon accumulation. This study highlights that amendment application might be a sustainable strategy to increase soil carbon storage while promoting organic waste utilization.