Soil structure and soil organic matter in water-stable aggregates under different application rates of biochar

Abstract

The effects of biochar and biochar combined with N-fertilizer on the content of soil organic matter in water-stable aggregates were investigated. A field experiment was conducted with different biochar application rates: B0 control (0 t ha-1), B10 (10 t ha-1) and B20 (20 t ha-1) and 0 (no N), 1st and 2nd levels of nitrogen fertilization on silt loam Haplic Luvisol (Dolna Malanta, Slovakia), in 2014. The N doses of level 1 were calculated on required average crop production using balance method. Level 2 included additional 100% of N in year 2014 and additional 50% of N in year 2016. The effects were investigated during the growing seasons of spring barley and spring wheat in 2014 and 2016, respectively. Results indicate that the B20N2 treatment significantly increased the proportion of water-stable macro-aggregates (WSAma) and reduced water-stable micro-aggregates (WSAmi). Aggregate stability increased only in the B20N1 treatment. The B20N2 treatment showed a robust decrease by 27% in the WSAma of 0.5-0.25 mm. On the other hand, an increase by 56% was observed in the content of WSAma with fractions 3-2 mm compared to the B0N0 treatment. The effect of N fertilizer on WSAma was confirmed only in the case of the B10N2 treatment. The proportion of WSAma with fractions 3-2 mm decreased by 42%, while the size fraction of 0.5-0.25 mm increased by 30% compared to the B10N0 treatment. The content of WSAma with fractions 1-0.5 mm decreased with time. On the contrary, the content of WSAma with particle sizes above 5 mm increased with time in all treatments except the B10N2 and B20N2 treatments. A statistically significant trend was identified in the proportion of WSA in the B10N2 and B20N2 treatments, which indicates that biochar with higher application levels of N fertilizer stabilizes the proportion of water-stable aggregates. 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Contrasting Impacts of Long-Term Application of Biofertilizers and Organic Manure on Grain Yield of Winter Wheat in North China Plain

“…The increases in grain yield of low chemical fertilizers substitute rates treatments might be due to the positive effects of organic manure and biofertilizers on wheat plants. As previously reported, organic manure amendment had the advantages of slowly releasing nutrients and preventing losses due to leaching [39,40] while biofertilizers could produce vitamins and substances that were beneficial to root development [32,41], which can promote wheat plants to absorb more nutrients.…”

“…Research [25,26] reported that the wheat grain yields were comparable in the treatments that received 80 t ha −1 yr −1 of organic manure or 204-252 kg N ha −1 yr −1 chemical N-fertilizers. As for biofertilizers, [27][28][29] reported that application of one biofertilizers obtained from sewage sludge at 7.2 L ha −1 increased maize grain yield by 17% compared with the untreated control and [10,30,31] revealed that biofertilizers amendments reduced inorganic N-fertilizers by 25% without decreasing rice yield in India [32].…”

Biochar: An Important Component Ameliorating the Productivity of Intensively Used Soils

“…The increase in SOC was also found in the soil of the plots where biochar was applied in combination with N fertilizer, but the nitrogen application rate was found to limit C accumulation in the soil [32,33]. Significant differences in labile C content were observed in fractions of water-stable aggregates as a result of biochar application [36][37][38]. The highest biochar and fertilizer application rates significantly increased total C content in water-stable aggregates throughout the duration of the experiment [36,38].…”

“…Significant differences in labile C content were observed in fractions of water-stable aggregates as a result of biochar application [36][37][38]. The highest biochar and fertilizer application rates significantly increased total C content in water-stable aggregates throughout the duration of the experiment [36,38]. In addition to the standard soil organic matter parameters, the focus has also been on the calculation of C indexes that more precisely reflect changes in soil organic matter composition resulting from land management changes (e.g., after biochar application) [33].…”

“…It was shown that biochar improved soil aggregation (clod formation) and structure stability (elimination of clod disintegration). The content of water-stable macro-aggregates has increased the most in the soil with 20 t ha -1 of biochar and the higher rate of N, which also resulted in higher aggregate stability and better ability of the soil to withstand crusting [32,33,36,38]. Improved soil structure stability has contributed to the improvement of other physical and hydro-physical soil properties and resulted in decreased soil bulk density, increased soil water content and higher soil water retention capacity [34,43,44].…”