Immediate and long-term effects of tillage practices with crop residue on soil water and organic carbon storage changes under a wheat-maize cropping system

Reasonable tillage management benefits soil structure optimization and agricultural sustainability. However, the differences of immediate (i.e. changes between post- and pre- tillage) and long-term effects (i.e. changes between treatments after certain years) under different tillage practices is often neglected. This study involved a 16-year field experiment including three tillage practices (plow tillage, PT; subsoiling tillage, ST and rotary tillage, RT) and two crop residue management practices (no residue return and all residue return). Those immediate and long-term effects on soil physical properties and soil organic carbon were investigated. For the immediate effects after tillage, the soil water storage under PT, ST, and RT decreased by 5.8%, 4.0%, and 3.2%, respectively; while those under residue return and no residue return decreased by 3.9% and 4.6%, respectively. Under the same conditions, ST was more beneficial to reduce soil penetration resistance. The soil bulk density post-tillage was significantly lower than that pre-tillage at 0–10 cm soil depth, meanwhile the soil bulk density at 10–40 cm soil depth was generally decreased after tillage practice under ST treatment. For the long-term effects, the penetration resistance at 10–50 cm soil depth and the soil bulk density at 10–30 cm soil depth were lower under the ST treatment than those under PT and RT treatments. Additionally, residue return was beneficial for soil water storage, soil bulk density, and soil organic carbon storage. Overall, both for the immediate and long-term effects, subsoiling tillage with residue return significantly increased soil water storage, total porosity, soil organic carbon storage and crop yields, while decreased soil bulk density and penetration resistance. •Tillage immediately decreased soil bulk density at a soil depth of 0–10 cm but not at 20–30 cm.•Subsoiling tillage decreased the penetration resistance and soil bulk density for a long time.•Subsoiling tillage had a highest SOC storage with a higher soil water storage.•Subsoiling tillage with residue return was beneficial to stable and increased production.