Abstract: Maize straws were put into nylon mash bags and buried in a calcareous soil to study the effects of returning maize straw into field on the calcareous soil Zn forms and their availability. Compared with Zn fertilization, returning maize straw into field had little contribution to the soil total Zn content. Both Zn fertilization and straw returning increased the soil DTPA-Zn content significantly, and the increment was larger under Zn fertilization. As compared to that in low Zn concentration straw, the Zn released from high Zn concentration straw after returned into soil was more easily transformed into soil DTPA-Zn, with the transformation rate reached 49.0%. The transformation rate of soil DTPA-Zn had a trend of decreasing first and increasing then after straw returned into soil, but had little change under Zn fertilization. The soil exchangeable Zn (Ex-Zn), carbonate bound Zn (Carb-Zn), manganese oxide bound Zn (OxMn-Zn), tightly organic bound Zn (Sbo-Zn), and mineral Zn (Min-Zn) contents had no significant differences among the treatments, but the soil weakly organic bound Zn (Wbo-Zn) content was significantly higher under Zn fertilization, compared with the treatments control and straw addition alone. It was considered that the Zn in maize straw could be easily transformed into soil DTPA-Zn, though the Zn concentration in straw was rather low. Therefore, Zn fertilization combined with returning maize straw into filed could be an effective way to improve the Zn supply capacity of calcareous soil.

Key words: maize straw, Zn fertilization, form, bioavailability, calcareous soil