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Cui et al. Carbon Footprints 2026, 5, 19 Page 13 of 16
amendment levels. Long-term irrigation combined with N fertilization accelerated SIC leaching and
depletion, and SIC losses offset a significant portion of newly formed SOC. The net soil C balance therefore
differed among management systems. The optimized treatment achieved net carbon sequestration but
required relatively high amounts of organic inputs, indicating a management trade-off. These results show
that SOC-SIC co-dynamics must be considered when evaluating carbon sequestration under intensive
agriculture.
DECLARATIONS
Authors’ contributions
Data curation, formal analysis, investigation, methodology, writing (original draft) and writing (review &
editing) were performed: Cui, B.
Data curation, formal analysis and visualization were performed: Tang, X.; Ma, J.
Data conceptualization and methodology were performed: Kuang, L.
The investigation was performed: Yuan, N.
Conceptualization, funding acquisition, project administration, resources, supervision, writing, review and
editing were performed: Meng, F.
All the authors contributed to the study conception and design. All the authors commented on previous
versions of the manuscript. All the authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Availability of data and materials
The datasets used or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon
reasonable request.
AI and AI-assisted tools statement
Not applicable.
Financial support and sponsorship
This research was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No.
2023YFD1701701).
Conflicts of interest
All authors declared that there are no conflicts of interest.
Ethical approval and consent to participate
Not applicable.
Consent for publication
Not applicable.
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2026.
Supplementary Materials
Supplementary Materials
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