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Nitrogen amendment stimulated decomposition of maize straw-derived biochar in a sandy loam soil: A short-term study

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posted on 2023-05-03, 09:13 authored by Weiwei Lu, Weixin Ding, Huanjun Zhang, Jiafa LuoJiafa Luo
This study examined the effect of nitrogen (N) on biochar stability in relation to soil microbial community as well as biochar labile components using δ13C stable isotope technology. A sandy loam soil under a long-term rotation of C3 crops was amended with biochar produced from maize (a C4 plant) straw in absence (BC0) and presence (BCN) of N and monitored for dynamics of carbon dioxide (CO2) flux, phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs) profile and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) content. N amendment significantly increased the decomposition of biochar during the first 5 days of incubation (P < 0.05), and the proportions of decomposed biochar carbon (C) were 2.30% and 3.28% in BC0 and BCN treatments, respectively, during 30 days of incubation. The magnitude of decomposed biochar C was significantly (P < 0.05) higher than DOC in biochar (1.75%) and part of relatively recalcitrant biochar C was mineralized in both treatments. N amendment increased soil PLFAs concentration at the beginning of incubation, indicating that microorganisms were N-limited in test soil. Furthermore, N amendment significantly (P < 0.05) increased the proportion of gram-positive (G+) bacteria and decreased that of fungi, while no noticeable changes were observed for gram-negative (G−) bacteria and actinobacteria at the early stage of incubation. Our results indicated that N amendment promoted more efficiently the proliferation of G+ bacteria and accelerated the decomposition of relatively recalcitrant biochar C, which in turn reduced the stability of maize straw-derived biochar in test soil.

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Rights statement

© 2015 Lu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Language

  • English

Does this contain Māori information or data?

  • No

Publisher

PLOS

Journal title

PLOS One

ISSN

1932-6203

Citation

Lu, W., Ding, W., Zhang, J., Zhang, H., Luo, J., & Bolan, N. (2015). Nitrogen amendment stimulated decomposition of maize straw-derived biochar in a sandy loam soil: a short-term study. PLoS ONE 10(7), e0133131. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0133131

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