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Biochar addition affected the dynamics of ammonia oxidizers and nitrification in microcosms of a coastal alkaline soil

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Abstract

Biochar amendments have frequently been reported to alter microbial communities and biogeochemical processes in soils. However, the impact of biochar application on bacterial (AOB) and archaeal ammonia oxidizers (AOA) remains poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the responses of AOB and AOA to the application of biochar derived from cotton stalk at rates of 5, 10, and 20 % by weight to a coastal alkaline soil during a 12-week incubation. The results showed that the amoA gene of AOB consistently outnumbered that of AOA, whereas only the AOA amoA gene copy number was significantly correlated with the potential ammonia oxidation (PAO) rate (P < 0.01). The significant decrease of PAO rates in biochar treatments occurred after incubation for 4–6 weeks, which were distinctly longer than that in the control (2 weeks). The PAO rates were significantly different among treatments during the first 4 weeks of incubation (P < 0.05), with the highest usually in the 10 % treatment. Biochar application significantly increased the abundance of both nitrifiers in the 4 weeks of incubation (P < 0.05). Biochar amendment also decreased AOA diversity, but increased AOB diversity, which resulted in different community structures of both nitrifiers (P < 0.01), as shown by the differences between the 5 % biochar and the control treatments. We conclude that biochar application generally enhanced the abundance and altered the composition of ammonia oxidizers; the rate of biochar application also affected the rate and dynamics of nitrification, and the risk for increasing the alkalinity and N leaching of the studied soil was lower with a lower application rate.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the One Hundred Talent Program of CAS, the CAS/SAFEA International Partnership Program for Creative Research Teams, the Main Direction Program of Knowledge Innovation of CAS (grant nos. KZCX2-YW-JC203 and KSCX2-EW-G-12B), NSFC (41301333), and the Yantai Double Hundred Talent Plan.

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  1. Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yantai, 264003, China

    Yanjing Song, Xiaoli Zhang, Bin Ma & Jun Gong

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

    Yanjing Song

  3. Department of Renewable Resources, University of Alberta, 442 Earth Sciences Building, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2E3, Canada

    Scott X. Chang

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  1. Yanjing Song
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Song, Y., Zhang, X., Ma, B. et al. Biochar addition affected the dynamics of ammonia oxidizers and nitrification in microcosms of a coastal alkaline soil. Biol Fertil Soils 50, 321–332 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-013-0857-8

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