Abstract
Purpose
Nitrogen (N) is an important element for crop yield and its availability may be affected by biochar. The mechanisms through which biochar influences N availability and thus crop productivity remain largely unclear, although they seem to be principally mediated by microbial processes. The objective of this study was to assess the effects of rice straw biochar on soil N availability and microbial functional genes (MFG) involved in N transformations under field experiment.
Materials and methods
The field experiment was performed using biochar amendment (0, 20, 40 t ha−1) with or without N fertilizer application in a rice paddy in central China.
Results
The results suggested that the soil NH4+-N content showed a decreasing trend during the early stage of rice growing season while increasing its availability during the later stage in the plots with biochar amendment as compared with control. Nonetheless, soil NO3−-N was not affected by biochar addition, N fertilization, and their interaction at most of the sampling times. With the increase of N fertilizer and biochar application, soil MBC and MBN increased in most of the sampling times during the first and second seasons. The N uptake was significantly positively correlated with soil MBC and MBN in the first and second seasons. Biochar addition also affected some MFG involved in N transformations, causing a general decrease in the abundance of bacterial ammonia oxidizers during mature stage and narG (nitrate reduction) at heading stage during the second season independent of biochar application rates, while increase in nifH (nitrogen fixation) at heading stage during the first season in 40 t ha−1 biochar treatments with N application, as compared with the control. However, there is lack of significant relationships between measured soil inorganic N and genetic data for each season.
Conclusion
As a result, the application of biochar had a slow release effect on soil NH4+-N and regulated the N uptake in rice. However, we believe that the dynamic of soil N availability during rice growing seasons may have been dominantly driven by abiotic factors rather than microbially mediated processes in double rice-cropping system.
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All data and materials generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article (and its supplementary information files).
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This work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 31601833 and 42167004).
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Shang QY conceived, designed, and financially supported the study; Lv RJ analyzed the data and wrote the paper; Wang Y and Wang QY supervised the field trial; Wen YP reviewed and edited the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Lv, R., Wang, Y., Wang, Q. et al. Rice straw biochar alters inorganic nitrogen availability in paddy soil mainly through abiotic processes. J Soils Sediments 23, 568–581 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-022-03355-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-022-03355-0