Abstract:Effects of tillage on soil carbon and nitrogen retention and stratification in ricewheat system were studied to provide a theoretical basis for exploring tillage methods which could be beneficial to the construction of soil organic carbon (SOC) and total nitrogen (TN) pools and the improvement of soil fertility in farmland. A fouryear field experiment was conducted based on Heheng demonstration park of ecoagricultural science and technology, including four treatments of minimum tillage with straw retention (MT), rotary tillage with straw retention (RT), conventional tillage with straw retention (CT) and conventional tillage without straw retention (CT0). Soil at 0~20cm depth was collected to determine soil bulk density, content of SOC and TN. Then the ratio of C to N, the stratification ratio and the SOC and TN storage (using the equivalent soil mass approach) were calculated. Results showed that the contents of SOC and TN in 0~5cm, 5~10 and 10~20cm depths were increased by MT, RT and CT, respectively. Soil C∶N ratio at 10~20cm depth was decreased with the increase of tillage intensity. MT significantly increased the stratification ratio of SOC and TN, while the stratification ratio of C∶N ratio at 0~5cm and 10~20cm depths was increased with the increase of tillage intensity. MT increased the SOC stocks at 0~20cm depth and the TN stocks at 0~10cm depth, but the TN stocks at 0~20cm depth were lower than those of RT and CT. Straw retention significantly increased SOC and TN contents and C∶N ratio, which were beneficial to SOC and TN sequestration, but it had no significant effect on stratification ratio of SOC and TN contents at 0~20cm depth.