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Biochar induced negative priming effect on soil organic carbon mineralisation by changing the microbial community structure across plant growth stages

  • Soils, Sec 2 • Global Change, Environ Risk Assess, Sustainable Land Use • Research Article
  • Published:
Journal of Soils and Sediments Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Biochars have considerable potential to improve soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration and consequently regulate greenhouse gas emissions. However, the important roles of microbial mediation in the biochar-induced SOC accumulation over the plant growth season have not been adequately explored. Here, we illustrated the interactive effects of biochar amendments and plant growth stages on the microbial community and SOC mineralisation.

Materials and methods

A 3-year experiment was performed in a tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) field with five treatments, including no fertilisation, conventional fertilisation, and conventional fertilisation with three rates of biochar amendments.

Results and discussion

Biochar amendments significantly improved soil moisture capacity (SMC) but decreased nitrogen (N) availability. The bacterial and fungal biomasses were enriched under biochar amendments and at the rosette and vigorous stages of the crop growing season. Biochar amendments and plant growth stages substantially affected the microbial community structure, as determined by the ratios of bacteria to fungi (B/F) and Gram-positive bacteria to Gram-negative bacteria (GP/GN). Random forest modelling revealed that SMC and N availability were the important predictors of microbial community and SOC mineralisation. Structural equation modelling indicated that microbial biomass and community structure (the rations of B/F and GP/GN) were positively associated with SMC but negatively correlated with N availability. Microbial community structure was more influential than microbial biomass in reducing microbial carbon metabolism of carbohydrates (cellobiose, glucose, and xylose) and SOC mineralisation.

Conclusions

Our study provided insights into the functional role of the microbial community in the biochar-induced negative priming effect on SOC mineralisation during the plant growth stages.

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Funding

This research was financially supported by the National Key Research and Development Project (2016YFD0200309), National Science Fund for Excellent Young Scholars of China (41922048), National Natural Science Foundation of China (41530856, 41771297), Outstanding Youth Scholar Program of Jiangsu Province (BK20180049), Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20171520), and Youth Innovation Promotion Association of CAS (2017361).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, 210008, China

    Haotian Wang, Lijun Chen, Yuji Jiang & Bo Sun

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Haotian Wang & Lijun Chen

  3. College of Life Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, 210023, China

    Wei Zhang & Qinsong Xu

Authors
  1. Haotian Wang
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  2. Wei Zhang
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  3. Lijun Chen
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  4. Qinsong Xu
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  5. Yuji Jiang
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  6. Bo Sun
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Correspondence to Yuji Jiang or Bo Sun.

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Responsible editor: Weijin Wang

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Wang, H., Zhang, W., Chen, L. et al. Biochar induced negative priming effect on soil organic carbon mineralisation by changing the microbial community structure across plant growth stages. J Soils Sediments 20, 3340–3350 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-020-02662-8

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