Biochar and compost effects on soil microbial communities and nitrogen induced respiration in turfgrass soils

Abstract

We examined the effect of a labile soil amendment, compost, and recalcitrant biochar on soil microbial community structure, diversity, and activity during turfgrass establishment. Two application rates of biochar (B1 at 12.5 t ha-1and B2 at 25 t ha-1), a 5 centimeter (cm) green waste compost treatment (CM) in top soil, a treatment with 12.5 t ha-1 biochar and 5 cm compost (B1+CM), and an unamended control (CK) treatment were prepared and seeded with tall fescue. Overall, results of phospholipid fatty acid analysis (PLFA) profiling and Illumina high-throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA genes amplified from soil DNA revealed significant shifts in microbial community structures in the compost amended soils whereas in biochar amended soils communities were more similar to the control, unamended soil. Similarly, increases in enzymatic rates (6–56%) and nitrogen-induced respiration (94%) were all largest in compost amended soils, with biochar amended soils exhibiting similar patterns to the control soils. Both biochar and compost amendments impacted microbial community structures and functions, but compost amendment, whether applied alone or co-applied with biochar, exhibited the strongest shifts in the microbial community metrics examined. Our results suggest application of compost to soils in need of microbiome change (reclamation projects) or biochar when the microbiome is functioning and long-term goals such as carbon sequestration are more desirable.

Composted Municipal Green Waste Infused with Biocontrol Agents to Control Plant Parasitic Nematodes—A Review

“…Achmon et al (2020) [204] also reported a highly significant drop in the relative abundance of plant pathogenic fungal taxa. These results, in turn, may imply that compost is able to "re-write" the microbiome of a soil, or replenish a partially missing or dysfunctional microbiome, and thus, the addition of compost can be used to achieve specific goals, as suggested by Azeem et al (2020) [200] in the case of turfgrass soil.…”

“…Although microbial activity plays a crucial role in the formation and maturation of compost [146], and the addition of organic amendments increases microbial biomass [154,160,199] and may induce major changes in the species composition and abundance of microbial communities [200], partly due to its strong correlation with its high organic matter, Ca, Mg and K content [155], the biological interactions between the soil microbiome and the microbial species composition of organic amendments, including MGW, have not yet been satisfactorily explained. The reason for this may be, for example, the different content (quality and quantity) of biologically active substances in MGW, which depends on the plant-species composition of MGW.…”

Chemical and Biological Characteristics of Organic Amendments Produced from Selected Agro-Wastes with Potential for Sustaining Soil Health: A Laboratory Assessment

“…Their addition to soil can be a big plus to soil health and sustainable crop production. It is worth noting that a combination of the biochar, compost, and fruit juices could be more beneficial to soil health rather than the individual agro-wastes [64], which can only be ascertained through amending soils in the field.…”

The Lack of Knowledge on the Microbiome of Golf Turfgrasses Impedes the Development of Successful Microbial Products

“…Different soil treatments using organic material containing mixed microbial communities have shown efficacy to suppress different diseases in turfgrass. Among those, compost has been used very successfully [94][95][96][97][98][99][100][101][102]. While adding compost might have positive effects, results can be irreproducible due to its microbial and chemical diversity and complexity.…”