Effects of white-rot fungal pretreatment of corn straw return on greenhouse gas emissions from the North China Plain soil

Sasa Zuo; Di Wu; Zhangliu Du; Chuncheng Xu; Wenliang Wu

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.150837

Effects of white-rot fungal pretreatment of corn straw return on greenhouse gas emissions from the North China Plain soil

Sci Total Environ. 2022 Feb 10;807(Pt 2):150837. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.150837. Epub 2021 Oct 7.

Authors

Sasa Zuo¹, Di Wu¹, Zhangliu Du¹, Chuncheng Xu², Wenliang Wu³

Affiliations

¹ Beijing Key Laboratory of Biodiversity and Organic Farming, College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China.
² Department of Agricultural Engineering, College of Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China.
³ Beijing Key Laboratory of Biodiversity and Organic Farming, College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China. Electronic address: wuwenl@cau.edu.cn.

PMID: 34627877
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.150837

Abstract

Straw-return with fungal treatment is a potential method for reducing soil greenhouse gas emissions through carbon (C) sequestration and N₂O mitigation. However, there is little information on the effects of different fungal treatments of crop straw return on soil CO₂ and N₂O emissions. To explore to what extent decomposed corn straw and its components controls soil CO₂ and N₂O emissions, we set up three sequential incubation experiments using soil collected from the North China Plain, an intensive agricultural area. Interactions between the different C contents of corn straw (CS), CS pretreated with Irpex lacteus (ICS), CS pretreated with Phanerochaete chrysosporium (PCS) and different NO₃^--N concentrations on the effect of soil CO₂ and N₂O emissions were conducted, and the kinetics of CO₂ and N₂O as influenced by changes in soil biochemical factors were analyzed. The effects of different lignocellulose components (lignin, cellulose, and xylan) on soil CO₂ and N₂O emissions were further studied. The results showed that straw pretreatment did not affect CO₂ emissions. Both CO₂ and N₂O emissions increased when the C and N contents increased. However, applying PCS to 70% water-filled pore space soil effectively decreased the soil N₂O emissions, by 41.8%-76.3% compared with adding the same level of CS. Moreover, extracellular enzyme activities related to C and N cycling were triggered, and the nosZI and nosZII abundances were significantly stimulated by the PCS application. These effects are closely related to the initial soluble C content of this treatment. Furthermore, adding xylan can significantly reduce N₂O emissions. Overall, our data suggest that the environmentally beneficial effects of returning straw can be greatly enhanced by applying the straw-degrading white-rot fungi of P. chrysosporium in the North China Plain soil. Future studies are needed in the field to upscale this technology.

Keywords: Corn straw; Denitrifying gene abundance; Fungal pretreatment; Nitrous oxide.

MeSH terms

Agriculture
Carbon
Greenhouse Gases*
Soil
Zea mays

Substances

Greenhouse Gases
Soil
Carbon