Kinetics of Carbon Mineralization and Sequestration of Sole and/or Co-amended Biochar and Cattle Manure in a Sandy Soil

Daniel E. Dodor, Yahaya J. Amanor, Abena Asamoah-Bediako, Dilys S. MacCarthy, Delali B.K. Dovie

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12 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The interactive effect of biochar, cattle manure and nitrogen (N) fertilizer on the dynamics of carbon (C) mineralization and stabilization was investigated in a sandy soil amended with three sole biochar (0, 20 or 40 t ha−1) or manure (0, 13 or 26 t ha−1) and four combined biochar-manure levels (20 or 40 t ha−1 biochar plus 13 or 26 t ha−1 manure) with or without N fertilizer (0 or 90 kg ha−1) and CO2-C evolution measured over 54-d incubation period. Biochar application, solely or combined with manure resulted in lower applied C mineralized (ACM), indicating C sequestration in the soils. Negative attributable effect (AE) of co-application of biochar and manure on C mineralization was observed relative to the sole treatments. Both ACM and AE were negatively correlated with C/N ratio and mineral N content of the soil-mixtures (r ≥–0.573; p ≤ 0.01), indicating microbial N limitation. The double first-order exponential model described CO2-C efflux very well and indicated that ≥94% of C applied was apportioned to stable C pools with slower mineralization rate constant and longer half-life. Cumulative C mineralized and modeled C pools were positively correlated with each other (r ≥ 0.853; p ≤ 0.001) and with readily oxidizable C of soil-amendment mixtures (r ≥ 0.861; p ≤ 0.001). The results suggested that co-application of biochar and manure can promote initial rapid mineralization to release plant nutrients but sequester larger amounts of applied C in refractive C pool, resulting in larger C sequestration in sandy soils.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2593-2609
Number of pages17
JournalCommunications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis
Volume50
Issue number20
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 13 Nov 2019

Keywords

  • Biochar
  • C mineralization
  • C sequestration
  • cattle manure
  • kinetic models
  • sandy soils

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