Journal
SOIL BIOLOGY & BIOCHEMISTRY
Volume 57, Issue -, Pages 513-523Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.soilbio.2012.10.033
Keywords
Biochar; Slow pyrolysis; Ryegrass; Soil microbial biomass; Soil microbial colonization; pH
Categories
Funding
- Chinese Scholarship Counci
- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)
- NSF [41071206]
- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council [BBS/E/C/00005202] Funding Source: researchfish
- BBSRC [BBS/E/C/00005202] Funding Source: UKRI
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Biochar has been widely proposed as a soil amendment, with reports of benefits to soil physical, chemical and biological properties. To quantify the changes in soil microbial biomass and to understand the mechanisms involved, two biochars were prepared at 350 degrees C (BC350) and 700 degrees C (BC700) from Miscanthus giganteus, a C4 plant, naturally enriched with C-13. The biochars were added to soils of about pH 4 and 8, which were both sampled from a soil pH gradient of the same soil type. Isotopic (C-13) techniques were used to investigate biochar C availability to the biomass. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) was used to observe the microbial colonization, and Attenuated Total Reflectance (ATR) to highlight structural changes at the surface of the biochars. After 90 days incubation, BC350 significantly increased the biomass C concentration relative to the controls in both the low (p < 0.05) and high pH soil (p <0.01). It declined between day 90 and 180. The same trend occurred with soil microbial ATP. Overall, biomass C and ATP concentrations were closely correlated over all treatments (R-2 = 0.87). This indicates that neither the biomass C, nor ATP analyses were affected by the biochars, unless, of course, they were both affected in the same way, which is highly unlikely. About 20% of microbial biomass BC was derived from BC350 after 90 days of incubation in both low and high pH soils. However, less than 2% of biomass C-13 was derived from BC700 in the high pH soil, showing very low biological availability of BC700. After 90 days of incubation, microbial colonization in the charsphere (defined here as the interface between soil and biochar) was more pronounced with the BC350 in the low pH soil. This was consistent with the biomass C and ATP results. The microbial colonization following biochar addition in our study was mainly attributed to biochar C availability and its large surface area. There was a close linear relationship between (CO2)-C-13 evolved and biomass C-13, suggesting that biochar mineralization is essentially a biological process. The interactions between non-living and living organic C forms, which are vital in terms of soil fertility and the global C cycle, may be favoured in the charsphere, which has unique properties, distinct from both the internal biochar and the bulk soil. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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