Biochar-Compost Additions Have Strong Short-Term Effects on Carbon and Nitrogen Emissions from an Agricultural Soil
OPEN ACCESS
Loading...
Author / Producer
Date
2022-12
Publication Type
Journal Article
ETH Bibliography
yes
Citations
Altmetric
OPEN ACCESS
Data
Rights / License
Abstract
Biochar (BC) application to agricultural soils has become a promising strategy for mitigation of soil-borne greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, i.e., carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O), but little is known about the effects on nitric oxide (NO) and dinitrogen (N2) fluxes. We conducted a short-term field experiment to evaluate the effects of BC with compost and additional fertilizer on different soil GHG fluxes. Application of 1% BC-compost showed no significant effect on CH4 and CO2 fluxes but lowered NO and N2O fluxes compared to the control without BC-compost. The addition of N to BC-compost (0.5% BC-compost + 175 kg N) showed a small mitigation potential for CH4 whereas N2O and NO fluxes significantly increased for one week after the application. The N2:N2O ratio shifted towards N2O production after the application of N-enriched BC-compost. During storage of pure N-enriched BC-compost, high gaseous losses in the form of NO (71.2 ± 2 µg N g−1 h−1), N2O (1319 ± 101 µg N g−1 h−1), and N2 (337.8 ± 93 µg N g−1 h−1) were measured. Approximately 31% of applied N was lost in gaseous form even in the presence of BC. To avoid this, an optimized strategy to balance easily available N from compost and fertilizer with the amount of BC should be developed.
Permanent link
Publication status
published
External links
Editor
Book title
Journal / series
Volume
12 (12)
Pages / Article No.
2959
Publisher
MDPI
Event
Edition / version
Methods
Software
Geographic location
Date collected
Date created
Subject
Agriculture; Organic amendments; Dinitrogen; Nitric oxide; Microbial biomass; Nitrification; Denitrification; Biochar-compost storage
Organisational unit
03648 - Buchmann, Nina / Buchmann, Nina