1.Soil Health Laboratory in Shanxi Province,Institute of Eco-environment and Industrial Technology,Shanxi Agricultural University,Taiyuan 030031,China
2.College of Resources and Environment,Shanxi Agricultural University,Jinzhong 030801,China
3.State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology,Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography,Chinese Academy of Sciences,State Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Security and Sustainable Development in Arid Regions,Urumqi 830011,China
4.Fukang Station of Desert Ecology,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Fukang 831505,China
Soil organic carbon (SOC) and inorganic carbon (SIC), as two key carbon pools, play critical roles in maintaining carbon balance, regulating soil health, and promoting agricultural sustainability through their interactive mechanisms. In recent years, increasing research has focused on the synergistic relationships between SOC and SIC, demonstrating their potential roles in enhancing aggregate stability, improving water and nutrient retention, boosting microbial activity, and increasing carbon sequestration potential. Although certain progress has been made in understanding the dynamics of SOC and SIC and their responses to farmland management practices, challenges remain due to incomplete theoretical frameworks and unclear practical pathways for elucidating SOC-SIC interactions and their regional variability. This paper systematically elaborates on the main pathways and regulatory mechanisms of SOC–SIC interactions, with a focus on the impacts of agricultural management practices such as fertilization regimes, tillage practices, and straw return on the synergistic effects of SOC and SIC. Incorporating research progress from typical regions like the Loess Plateau, the paper explores their application potential in enhancing soil health in ecologically fragile areas. There is an urgent need to strengthen multidisciplinary integration, develop coupled SOC-SIC models encompassing physical, chemical, and biological processes, and establish regionally differentiated technical systems for synergistic carbon regulation. These efforts will provide more precise scientific foundations for achieving agricultural sustainability and soil health goals.
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