Effect of biochar application rate on changes in soil labile organic carbon fractions and the association between bacterial community assembly and carbon metabolism with time

Husen Qiu; Jieyun Liu; Mohammad Reza Boorboori; De Li; Sheng Chen; Xun Ma; Peng Cheng; Haiyang Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.158876

Effect of biochar application rate on changes in soil labile organic carbon fractions and the association between bacterial community assembly and carbon metabolism with time

Sci Total Environ. 2023 Jan 10:855:158876. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.158876. Epub 2022 Sep 22.

Authors

Husen Qiu¹, Jieyun Liu², Mohammad Reza Boorboori¹, De Li³, Sheng Chen⁴, Xun Ma⁴, Peng Cheng⁴, Haiyang Zhang¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Environment and Surveying Engineering, Suzhou University, Suzhou 234000, China; Research Center of Non-point Source Pollution Control and Ecological Remediation of Tuohe River Basin, Suzhou University, Suzhou 234000, China.
² School of Environment and Surveying Engineering, Suzhou University, Suzhou 234000, China; Research Center of Non-point Source Pollution Control and Ecological Remediation of Tuohe River Basin, Suzhou University, Suzhou 234000, China. Electronic address: liujieyun66@163.com.
³ Suzhou Meteorological Bureau of Anhui, Suzhou 234000, China.
⁴ School of Environment and Surveying Engineering, Suzhou University, Suzhou 234000, China.

PMID: 36152866
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.158876

Abstract

Biochar aging affects the stability of soil carbon. Analyzing the effect of biochar on soil organic carbon (SOC) forms and their relations with microbial community assembly and carbon metabolism with time is helpful for soil carbon sequestration (by adapting the farm management approach). Four treatments with no, low, medium, and high biochar application rates (0 %, 1 %, 2 %, and 4 % of the total dry weight of topsoil before winter wheat planting, abbreviated as control, LB, MB, and HB, respectively) were conducted in the field. The SOC and particulate organic carbon positively correlated with the biochar application rate. Biochar decreased readily oxidizable carbon (P < 0.05) after 8 months of application compared to the control; however, the difference disappeared with time. Biochar increased dissolved organic carbon (DOC) but had no effect on water- soluble organic carbon (WSOC); DOC and WSOC decreased with time. Furthermore, LB and HB stabilized the bacterial alpha diversities with time. Based on high-throughput sequencing, HB reduced the relative abundance of Actinobacteriota but increased that of Acidobacteria (P < 0.05) after 12 months of biochar application. Time-wise, the bacterial community assembly was determined by deterministic processes that were significantly affected by the available nitrogen, DOC, or WSOC. Compared with the control, biochar decreased bacterial links and improved bacterial metabolism of phenolic acids and polymers with time, as evidenced by Biolog EcoPlates. Structural equation modeling revealed that the contribution of bacterial assembly processes to carbon metabolism changed with time. Microbial carbon metabolism was most positively influenced by differences in the composition of bacterial specialists. These findings reinforced that changes in soil labile organic carbon were time-dependent but not necessarilty affected by the biochar application rate.

Keywords: Bacterial community assembly; Biochar application; Environmental filtering; Labile organic carbon; Microbial metabolism.

MeSH terms

Bacteria
Carbon Sequestration
Carbon*
Charcoal / chemistry
Soil Microbiology
Soil* / chemistry
Water

Substances

biochar
Soil
Carbon
Charcoal
Water