ObjectivesThis research was conducted to reveal the stability and dynamic of wheat yields to long-term fertilization in yellow fluvo-aquic soils, and to provide scientific references for establishing the optimal fertilization pattern and promoting sustainable production of wheat.

MethodsBased on a long-term fertilization experiment in Xuzhou of Jiangsu province, the trends of changes in wheat average yield, annual fluctuation of wheat yields and soil nutrients contents were investigated in 5 fertilization patterns including no fertilizer application (CK), application of single N fertilizer (N), combined N, P and K fertilizers (NPK), organic fertilizer (M), combination of N, P, K and organic fertilizers (MNPK).

ResultsThe results showed that wheat yield and fertilizer contribution ratio of MNPK were higher than other fertilization treatments, and wheat yield of NPK was higher than that of M in the experiment. Compared with CK, the average increased yield of MNPK was higher than those of the other fertilization treatments, NPK took the second place, by increasing 374.2% of that in the non-fertilization treatment, wheat yield increasing of M was the third place, and the increased yield of N was the lowest. The N fertilization enhanced the coefficient of variation (CV = 26.72%–38.72%) of wheat yields and reduced sustainable yield index (SYI = 0.32–0.51), which made yield stability the lowest, and the wheat yield stability of MNPK (CV = 4.86%–7.76%, SYI = 0.79–0.89) was better than NPK (CV = 5.72%–9.67%, SYI = 0.75–0.83) which was better than M (CV = 5.44%–15.87%, SYI = 0.60–0.87). The contents of organic matter, total nitrogen, available phosphorus and available potassium were increased significantly by the organic fertilizer application, and increased with 1.20, 1.18, 16.13, 0.95 times in the MNPK treatment during the last 35 years, respectively. Meanwhile, significantly positive correlations were observed between the wheat yield and the total nitrogen, organic matter, available phosphorus and available potassium (P < 0.01).

ConclusionsThe wheat yield in yellow fluvo-aquic soils was increased significantly by the fertilizer application, and the enhancements for the wheat yield stability and sustainability and the contents of total nitrogen, organic matter, available phosphorus and available potassium were notably under the MNPK treatment. Therefore, the combination of N, P, K and organic fertilizer is a favorable fertilization method for the improvement of soil nutrient balance and sustainability in yellow fluvo-aquic soils.