CANCELLED - Buried soil amendments influence microbial activity and carbon sequestration in subsurface soils

Background/Question/Methods

Organic soil amendments such as biochar and compost are potential win-win management tools that can simultaneously stimulate carbon sequestration and improve soil fertility, but their benefits depend how they influence processes such carbon fixation, decomposition, and nitrogen cycling. Because organic amendments are usually applied to soil surface layers their effects in deeper soil layers are unknown. In this study, we investigated how buried layers of compost and biochar influenced microbial activity and carbon sequestration in subsurface soils of a restoration site. During restoration, combinations of biochar and compost were buried approximately 30cm from the surface. After three years, we sampled soil to a depth of 50cm and measured respiration in laboratory incubations, microbial biomass, water-extractable organic matter, and density fractions of soil organic carbon.TRANSLATE with x EnglishArabicHebrewPolishBulgarianHindiPortugueseCatalanHmong DawRomanianChinese SimplifiedHungarianRussianChinese TraditionalIndonesianSlovakCzechItalianSlovenianDanishJapaneseSpanishDutchKlingonSwedishEnglishKoreanThaiEstonianLatvianTurkishFinnishLithuanianUkrainianFrenchMalayUrduGermanMalteseVietnameseGreekNorwegianWelshHaitian CreolePersian TRANSLATE with COPY THE URL BELOW Back EMBED THE SNIPPET BELOW IN YOUR SITE Enable collaborative features and customize widget: Bing Webmaster PortalBack

Results/Conclusions

We found that compost amendments increased respiration from subsurface soils, while biochar amendments did not. Differences in respiration were mainly driven by variability in water extractable organic matter (WEOM), as compost increased WEOM content in soils and biochar did not. Neither amendment had an effect on microbial biomass content in subsurface soils. Our results suggest that burying soil amendments can be an effective carbon sequestration strategy, but the outcome may depend on the type of amendment used.TRANSLATE with xEnglishArabicHebrewPolishBulgarianHindiPortugueseCatalanHmong DawRomanianChinese SimplifiedHungarianRussianChinese TraditionalIndonesianSlovakCzechItalianSlovenianDanishJapaneseSpanishDutchKlingonSwedishEnglishKoreanThaiEstonianLatvianTurkishFinnishLithuanianUkrainianFrenchMalayUrduGermanMalteseVietnameseGreekNorwegianWelshHaitian CreolePersian TRANSLATE with COPY THE URL BELOW BackEMBED THE SNIPPET BELOW IN YOUR SITE Enable collaborative features and customize widget: Bing Webmaster PortalBackCompost amendments increased respiration from subsurface soils, while biochar amendments did not. Differences in respiration were mainly driven by variability in water extractable organic matter (WEOM), as compost increased WEOM content in soils and biochar did not. Neither amendment had an effect on microbial biomass content in subsurface soils. Our results suggest that burying soil amendments can be an effective carbon sequestration strategy, but the outcome may depend on the type of amendment used.TRANSLATE with x EnglishArabicHebrewPolishBulgarianHindiPortugueseCatalanHmong DawRomanianChinese SimplifiedHungarianRussianChinese TraditionalIndonesianSlovakCzechItalianSlovenianDanishJapaneseSpanishDutchKlingonSwedishEnglishKoreanThaiEstonianLatvianTurkishFinnishLithuanianUkrainianFrenchMalayUrduGermanMalteseVietnameseGreekNorwegianWelshHaitian CreolePersian TRANSLATE with COPY THE URL BELOW Back EMBED THE SNIPPET BELOW IN YOUR SITE Enable collaborative features and customize widget: Bing Webmaster PortalBack