eng Science and Education Publishing World Journal of Agricultural Research 2333-0678 2024-07-22 12 2 18 22 10.12691/wjar-12-2-1 WJAR20241221 article Haixia Guo 1 Kang Li 2 Fuyuan Lai 3 Xie Wang wangxiechangde@hotmail.com 4 Key Laboratory of the Philosophy and Social Sciences of Sichuan Province on the Monitoring and Evaluation of the Utilization of Rural Land, Chengdu Normal University, Chengdu Sichuan 611130, China Sichuan Arts and Physical Education High School, Chengdu Sichuan 610203, China Fuyuan County Industrial Investment Group Co., Qujing Yunnan 655500, China Institute of Agricultural Resources and Environment, Sichuan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Chengdu Sichuan 610066, China Rice-duck farming is one of the emerging ecological cropping modes in paddy fields in China. Soil enzyme play an important catalytic role in nutrient transformation and organic matter decomposition in soil, and their activity is an important indicator of soil fertility and quality. In this study, the effect of rice-duck cropping on soil enzyme activities in paddy fields was analyzed, and the results show that: (1) soil catalase activity was significantly higher under rice-duck cropping model; (2)soil harvesting time had a significant effect on the activities of urease, alkaline phosphatase and catalase, in which soil urease activity showed a gradual increasing trend, with after rice harvesting (ARH) > before transplanting (BT) > before ducks releasing (BDR), soil alkaline phosphatase activity showed a tendency to increase and then decrease, with BT > ARH > BDR, and soil catalase showed a tendency of gradual decrease, with BT > BDR > ARH; (3) there was no significant difference in the activities of urease, alkaline phosphatase and catalase among different soil layers. Thus, this study concluded that rice-duck cropping mode optimizes the enzyme environment of paddy soil by enhancing catalase activity. https://pubs.sciepub.com/wjar/12/2/1/wjar-12-2-1.pdf Rice-duck Cropping Model Soil enzyme Catalase