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Effects of biochar, earthworms, and litter addition on soil microbial activity and abundance in a temperate agricultural soil

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Abstract

Biochar application to arable soils could be effective for soil C sequestration and mitigation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Soil microorganisms and fauna are the major contributors to GHG emissions from soil, but their interactions with biochar are poorly understood. We investigated the effects of biochar and its interaction with earthworms on soil microbial activity, abundance, and community composition in an incubation experiment with an arable soil with and without N-rich litter addition. After 37 days of incubation, biochar significantly reduced CO2 (up to 43 %) and N2O (up to 42 %), as well as NH4 +-N and NO3 −-N concentrations, compared to the control soils. Concurrently, in the treatments with litter, biochar increased microbial biomass and the soil microbial community composition shifted to higher fungal-to-bacterial ratios. Without litter, all microbial groups were positively affected by biochar × earthworm interactions suggesting better living conditions for soil microorganisms in biochar-containing cast aggregates after the earthworm gut passage. However, assimilation of biochar-C by earthworms was negligible, indicating no direct benefit for the earthworms from biochar uptake. Biochar strongly reduced the metabolic quotient qCO2 and suppressed the degradation of native SOC, resulting in large negative priming effects (up to 68 %). We conclude that the biochar amendment altered microbial activity, abundance, and community composition, inducing a more efficient microbial community with reduced emissions of CO2 and N2O. Earthworms affected soil microorganisms only in the presence of biochar, highlighting the need for further research on the interactions of biochar with soil fauna.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Kathleen Regan and Kathleen A. Mackie for English correction and Wolfgang Armbruster for isotopic analyses. In addition, we kindly thank the editor and the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on the manuscript. The first author was funded by a PhD scholarship awarded by the faculty of Agricultural Sciences at the University of Hohenheim.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Soil Science and Land Evaluation, Soil Biology Section, University of Hohenheim, Emil-Wolff-Strasse 27, 70593, Stuttgart, Germany

    Chris Bamminger, Natalie Zaiser, Prisca Zinsser & Sven Marhan

  2. Institute of Soil Science and Land Evaluation, Biogeophysics Section, University of Hohenheim, Emil-Wolff-Strasse 27, 70593, Stuttgart, Germany

    Marc Lamers

  3. Department of Plant Ecology, Justus-Liebig University Giessen, Heinrich-Buff-Ring 26, 35392, Giessen, Germany

    Claudia Kammann

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  1. Chris Bamminger
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  4. Marc Lamers
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  5. Claudia Kammann
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Correspondence to Chris Bamminger.

Electronic supplementary material

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Fig. S1

δ13C-values of earthworm biomass in soils without (EW) and with biochar (BC+EW) in the ‘no litter’ and ‘with litter’ treatments. (JPEG 946 kb)

Fig. S2

Rates of a) CO2 and b) N2O fluxes in the ‘no litter’ and ‘with litter’ treatments during the 37 days of incubation. Ctrl = only soil, BC = soil with biochar, EW = soil including one endogeic earthworm, BC+EW= soil with biochar and one earthworm. (JPEG 2099 kb)

Fig. S3

Water retention curve (pF curve) of soil without (Ctrl) and with biochar (BC) and without and with litter (+litter). (JPEG 1251 kb)

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Bamminger, C., Zaiser, N., Zinsser, P. et al. Effects of biochar, earthworms, and litter addition on soil microbial activity and abundance in a temperate agricultural soil. Biol Fertil Soils 50, 1189–1200 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-014-0968-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-014-0968-x

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