Li_2025

The source data of "Assessment of the effects of tillage practices and cropping systems on rhizosphere soil organic carbon and nitrogen dynamics on the Loess Plateau". Rhizosphere soil carbon and nitrogen cycling play pivotal roles in crop production and soil function within agroecosystems. However, the dynamics of these soil properties during critical crop growth stages under various tillage practices and cropping systems remain insufficiently understood. This study, based on a long-term experiment initiated in 2009 on the Loess Plateau, investigated the effects of different tillage practices (chisel plow tillage, CPT; zero tillage, ZT; plow tillage, PT) and cropping systems [summer maize (<i>Zea mays L.</i>) -winter wheat (<i>Triticum aestivum L.</i>), MW; summer soybean (<i>Glycine max L.</i>) -winter wheat, SW] on rhizosphere soil labile organic carbon, nitrogen, and extracellular enzymes dynamics during four key growth stages of winter wheat (winter dormancy, WD; jointing stage; flowering stage; ripening stage, RS) over two growing seasons (2020-2022). Conservation tillage practices (CPT and ZT) enhanced rhizosphere soil labile organic carbon, nitrogen availability, and hydrolysis enzyme activities at all growth stages compared to PT. These practices increased microbial biomass carbon (MBC), dissolved organic carbon (DOC), particulate organic carbon, permanganate oxidizable organic carbon (POXC), microbial biomass nitrogen (MBN), dissolved organic nitrogen, nitrate nitrogen (NO₃⁻-N), ammonium nitrogen (NH₄⁺-N), β-1,4-glucosidase, N-acetyl-β-glucosaminidase (NAG), and leucine-aminopeptidase (LAP) by 11.1-322.6%, 13.4-91.7%, 69.9-140.5, 15.4-135.5%, 10.1-206.8%, 8.5-137.9%, 17.4-199.2%, 22.6-109.7%, 10.5-196.2%, 7.9-164.5%, and 7.8-99.4%, respectively. Soil properties differed between cropping systems and were influenced by the growth stages of winter wheat. Specifically, compared to MW, the SW increased NO₃⁻-N, NH₄⁺-N, and POXC in WD, but decreased MBC, MBN, and DOC contents in RS. Redundancy analysis and Pearson's correlation test revealed negative correlations between soil NO₃⁻-N and DON with NAG, LAP, and polyphenol oxidase activities, whereas labile organic carbon fractions were positively correlated with soil extracellular enzyme activities and ecoenzymatic stoichiometry. These results provide valuable insights into the dynamics of rhizosphere soil organic carbon and nitrogen under different agricultural practices on the Loess Plateau.