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Hydrochar amendment promotes microbial immobilization of mineral nitrogen

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Hydrochars and biochars are products of the carbonization of biomass in different conversion
processes. Both are considered suitable soil amendments, though they differ greatly in chemical
and physical composition (e.g., aromaticity, inner surface area) due to the different production
processes (pyrolysis, hydrothermal carbonization), thus affecting their degradability in soil.
Depending on the type, char application may provide soil microorganisms with more (hydrochars)
or less (biochars) accessible C sources, thus resulting in the incorporation of nitrogen (N)
into microbial biomass. A soil-incubation experiment was conducted for 8 weeks to determine
the relationship between mineral-N concentration in the soil solution and microbial-biomass development
as well as soil respiration. An arable topsoil was amended with two hydrochars from
feedstocks with different total N contents. Biochars from the same feedstocks were used for
comparison. Both char amendments significantly decreased mineral-N concentration and promoted
microbial biomass compared to the nonamended control, but the effects were much
stronger for hydrochar. Hydrochar application increased soil respiration significantly during the
first week of incubation, simultaneous with the strongest decrease in mineral-N concentration in
the soil and an increase in microbial biomass. The amount of N detected in the microbial biomass
in the hydrochar treatments accounted for the mineral N “lost” from the soil during incubation.
This shows that microbial immobilization is the main sink for decreasing mineral-N concentrations
after hydrochar application. However, this does not apply to biochar, since the amount of
N recovered in microorganisms was much lower than the decrease in soil mineral-N concentration.
Our results demonstrate that while both chars are suitable soil amendments, their properties
need to be considered to match the application purpose (C sequestration, organic fertilizer).

Key words: biochar / hydrothermal carbonization / mineral nitrogen / microbial activity / chloroform
fumigation extraction (CFE)

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Informasi Detail

Judul Seri

J. Plant Nutr. Soil Sci.

No. Panggil

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Penerbit

: WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim., 2014

Deskripsi Fisik

J. Plant Nutr. Soil Sci. 2014, 177, 59–67

Bahasa

English

ISBN/ISSN

201300154

Klasifikasi

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Tipe Isi

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Tipe Media

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Tipe Pembawa

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Edisi

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Subjek

PERTANIAN.

Info Detail Spesifik

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Pernyataan Tanggungjawab

agus

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