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Biogas residue biochar still had ecological risks to the ultisol: evidence from soil bacterial communities, organic carbon structures, and mineralization

  • Soils, Sec 1 • Soil Organic Matter Dynamics and Nutrient Cycling • Research Article
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Abstract

Purpose

As a high-yield by-products of biogas engineering, biogas residue (BR) are limited in the application of soil fertility due to their ecological threat. Therefore, conversing BR into biochar is to be considered. However, whether BR biochar still had ecological risk to soils (especially the widely distributed soils such as Ultisol soil) remains to be probed.

Materials and methods

Considering that soil microbial communities and carbon (C) pools play crucial roles in soil ecological environment, the soil bacterial communities, dissolved organic C (DOC) molecular structure, and bulk C mineralization in soils with BR (SBR) and BR biochar (produced at 300 °C, 600 °C, and 800 °C) addition (SBC) were explored in a microcosm incubation experiment using the Ultisol soil (clay loam soil). Soil without biochar addition was set as control (CK). The key technology of Fourier-transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (ESI-FT-ICR-MS) was adopted in DOC molecular structure determination.

Results and discussion

SBC300 and SBC600 significantly increased Shannon and Simpson indices by 4.3–7.7% and 2.3–2.6% than SBR. The abundance of Chloroflexi, Acidobacteria, Planctomycetes, and Firmicutes phyla were ordered with CK > SBC > SBR. ESI-FT-ICR-MS results showed that the DOC in SBC and SBR had more proteins, carbohydrates, and unsaturated hydrocarbons than in CK, and the highest increases emerged in SBC600. The soil C mineralization ability showed SBR > SBC > CK. The increase of SOC mineralization and the simplification of DOC molecular structure were significantly related to the increase of Proteobacteria and the decrease of Firmicutes. The structural equation modeling showed DOC concentration (SPC = − 0.300), bacterial community richness (SPC = 0.271), and diversity (SPC = − 0.939) were the important abiotic and biotic factors regulating C mineralization.

Conclusions

In conclusion, the application of BR biochar had lower ecological risk than direct application of BR in the Ultisol soil.

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Funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (31901195, 42007013), Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation (ZR2019BD062, ZR2021QD036), Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Program of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (ASTIP-TRIC-ZD01), and the Science Foundation for Young Scholars of Tobacco Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (2019B04, 2020B01).

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  1. Key Laboratory of Tobacco Biology and Processing, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Tobacco Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Qingdao, 266101, China

    Ping Cong, Xuebo Zheng, Wenjing Song, Jianxin Dong & Xiaogang Ma

  2. Institute of Environmental and Ecological Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, China

    Lanfang Han & Liying Chen

  3. China Tobacco Hunan Industrial Co., LTD, Changsha, 410000, China

    Jintao Zhang

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  1. Ping Cong
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Cong, P., Zheng, X., Han, L. et al. Biogas residue biochar still had ecological risks to the ultisol: evidence from soil bacterial communities, organic carbon structures, and mineralization. J Soils Sediments 23, 49–63 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-022-03269-x

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