Abstract: Fertilization is an effective management to maintain and increase soil organic carbon (SOC) level in agroecosystems. Both microbial metabolism and plant component retention control SOC sequestration. Here, we used amino sugars and lignin as biomarkers to investigate the responses of distribution of microbial necromass and plant debris in a long-term cultivated soil (30 years) and SOC accumulation to different fertilization regime. The results showed that, compared with unfertilized treatment, inorganic fertilizer application (N fertilizer-only or the combination of organic or inorganic fertilizers) increased crop production and soil amino sugar accumulation, but did not affect the concentrations of lignin and SOC, indicating that inorganic fertilizer stimulated the assimilation of microbial substrate and accelerated the turnover of SOC and lignin in the plough layer. Compared with inorganic fertilizer treatment, long-term organic fertilizer application promoted SOC accumulation (38.3%), but did not affect amino sugar concentration in SOC, which indicated that soil could reach a ‘saturation’ state with respect to microbial residue accumulation. In contrast, the application of organic fertilizer increased the proportion of lignin in SOC,indicating that the contribution of plant residues to SOC persistence was enhanced. Compared with the manure-only treatment, organic-inorganic combined application mainly increased the contribution of amino sugar to SOC accumulation. Our findings indicated that long-term fertilization could affect SOC dynamics through modulating the accumulation processes of microbial necromass and plant debris.

Key words: long-term fertilization, soil organic carbon, lignin, amino sugar