ABSTRACT
The combination of field trial and indoor incubation experiment were conducted to examine the long-term effects of one-time application of bio-organic fertilizer on soil organic carbon (C) components, organic C mineralization, and enzyme activity in cucumber continuous cropping. Compared with CK, bio-organic fertilizer application significantly increased the content of soil organic C, activated C pool, slow-release C pool and inert C pool during four continuous cucumber planting seasons. With the increases of the number of consecutive crops, the proportion of soil inert carbon gradually increased. After four continuous seasons of cucumber planting, the cumulative and daily mineralization rate of soil organic C in the bio-organic fertilizer treatment increased by 17.3%-31.0% and 7.8%-43.0%, respectively. In the stage of cucumber ripening, bio-organic fertilizer application increased the activities of continuous soil urease, catalase, sucrose and neutral phosphatase by 10.5%-62.1%, 4.8%-25.5%, 3.9%-21.4% and 4.6%-66.4%. The activities of those four enzymes increased with the increases of the application amount of organic fertilizer. Results from the correlation and path analysis showed that the activity of the four enzymes were significantly correlated with the dynamics of organic carbon components in soil cucumber continuous cropping process. Soil urease and invertase activities significantly affected organic carbon mineralization during the continuous cropping process of cucumber. Application of bio-organic fertilizer could increase soil organic carbon content and enzyme activity, improve inert carbon ratio of soil organic carbon pools, cumulative and mineralization rate of organic carbon in continuous cropping process, thereby enhance soil carbon sequestration capacity.