Peat origin and land use effects on microbial activity, respiration dynamics and exo-enzyme activities in drained peat soils in the Netherlands

Brouns, Karlijn; Keuskamp, Joost A.; Potkamp, Gerrit; Verhoeven, Jos T. A.; Hefting, Mariet M.

doi:10.1016/j.soilbio.2015.11.018

Cited by 45 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 56 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…They also indicate that soils of our study sites were characteristic of European fens and resembled typical properties of managed organic soils (Berglund, 1995;Kechavarzi et al, 2010;Eickenscheidt et al, 2015;Krueger et al, 2015;Wüst-Galley et al, 2016;Brouns et al, 2016). Several studies assume that deeper layer peat of managed organic soils is less decomposed (Ewing and Vepraskas, 2006;Rogiers et al, 2008;Leifeld et al, 2011a, b;Krueger et al, 2015;Wüst-Galley et al, 2016).…”

Section: Som Characteristicssupporting

confidence: 70%

Peat decomposability in managed organic soils in relation to land use, organic matter composition and temperature

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Organic soils comprise a large yet fragile carbon (C) store in the global C cycle. Drainage, necessary for agriculture and forestry, triggers rapid decomposition of soil organic matter (SOM), typically increasing in the order forest < grassland < cropland. However, there is also large variation in decomposition due to differences in hydrological conditions, climate and specific management. Here we studied the role of SOM composition on peat decomposability in a variety of differently managed drained organic soils. We collected a total of 560 samples from 21 organic cropland, grassland and forest soils in Switzerland, monitored their CO 2 emission rates in lab incubation experiments over 6 months at two temperatures (10 and 20 • C) and related them to various soil characteristics, including bulk density, pH, soil organic carbon (SOC) content and elemental ratios (C / N, H / C and O / C). CO 2 release ranged from 6 to 195 mg CO 2 -C g −1 SOC at 10 • C and from 12 to 423 mg g −1 at 20 • C. This variation occurring under controlled conditions suggests that besides soil water regime, weather and management, SOM composition may be an underestimated factor that determines CO 2 fluxes measured in field experiments. However, correlations between the investigated chemical SOM characteristics and CO 2 emissions were weak. The latter also did not show a dependence on land-use type, although peat under forest was decomposed the least. High CO 2 emissions in some topsoils were probably related to the accrual of labile crop residues. A comparison with published CO 2 rates from incubated mineral soils indicated no difference in SOM decomposability between these soil classes, suggesting that accumulation of recent, labile plant materials that presumably account for most of the evolved CO 2 is not systematically different between mineral and organic soils. In our data set, temperature sensitivity of decomposition (Q 10 on average 2.57 ± 0.05) was the same for all land uses but lowest below 60 cm in croplands and grasslands. This, in turn, indicates a relative accumulation of recalcitrant peat in topsoils.

show abstract

Section: Som Characteristicssupporting

confidence: 70%

Peat decomposability in managed organic soils in relation to land use, organic matter composition and temperature

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The values of microbial biomass and soil enzymes (Table ) obtained in our work for peat were within the lower range of those obtained by other authors (Brouns et al, ; Pinsonneault et al, ). For example, Brouns et al () found values of microbial biomass in peat ranging from 300 to 2000 μgC g −1 , compared to our value of 421 μgC/g. At the end of the incubation period, microbial biomass values of the hydrochars differed significantly from peat microbial biomass value.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydrochars from Biosolids and Urban Wastes as Substitute Materials for Peat

et al. 2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Peat is the most widely used substrate component and extensively used in greenhouse cultivation, landfill cover soils, urban parks and gardens, urban agriculture or green roofs, due to its excellent combination of physicochemical properties. The production of hydrochar by hydrothermal carbonization (a process at lower temperatures than pyrolysis and using wet conditions) could industrially reproduce the initial conditions of biomass humification and lead to materials with similar properties to those of peat. The objective of this work was to compare peat (PT, Control), a hydrochar prepared from biosolids (HSL), a hydrochar prepared from the organic fraction of urban wastes (HUW) and two mixtures (PT + HSL and PT + HUW) at a 50% volume rate for their potential use as substrates with multiple applications. Ryegrass was established at a rate of 40 g seeds cm−2 in the potting mixtures. Hydrophysical and biochemical properties (microbial biomass and the enzymes dehydrogenase, β‐glucosidase and phosphomonoesterase) were analyzed for PT, HSL, HUV and their combination (PT + HSL and PT + HUW). Treatments with biosolids hydrochar increased ryegrass production by 184% (HSL) and by 216% (PT + HSL) dry weight compared to the control (peat). Biochemical properties depended strongly on hydrochar type, while the hydrophysical properties of the hydrochars were similar to those of peat. Overall, our results found hydrochar–peat mixtures (PT + HSL and PT + HUW) to be suitable for the preparation of growing media. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

show abstract

“…Incubation experiment using disturbed samples is common practice, even for peat soils (e.g. Brake et al, 1999;Brouns et al, 2016;Urbanová et al, 2011) and often caused by logistical constraints (see comments 2.1 and 2.2).…”

Section: 3) L126 Was the Time Of Sampling Prior To Incubation?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Author Comment to all three Referees

Tiemeyer¹

2017

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Referee #1 brought our attention to a problem with our statistical analysis and criticised the length and readability of the manuscript. We greatly appreciate pointing us to the issue of the unbalanced experimental design. The statistical soundness of the manuscript could therefore be considerably improved (see comment 1.5).1.1) In general the article is too long, authors could consider to make the article concise and focused on key results. In the current form it is too hard to get bottom of the core results found.We agree with the reviewer that the paper can be shorted and will refrain from showing C1 BGD Interactive commentPrinter-friendly version Discussion paper results of the original gls model as the results did not offer substantially stronger insight than the regression analysis but obviously led to some confusion (e.g. comment 1.4). Furthermore, we will delete the results on the microbial biomass and respiratory quotient to shorten the article as these data show very similar patterns as the respiration rates.

show abstract

Peat origin and land use effects on microbial activity, respiration dynamics and exo-enzyme activities in drained peat soils in the Netherlands

Cited by 45 publications

References 56 publications

Peat decomposability in managed organic soils in relation to land use, organic matter composition and temperature

Peat decomposability in managed organic soils in relation to land use, organic matter composition and temperature

Hydrochars from Biosolids and Urban Wastes as Substitute Materials for Peat

Author Comment to all three Referees

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About