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Biochar more than stubble management affected carbon allocation and persistence in soil matrix: a 9-year temperate cropland trial

  • Soils, Sec 2 • Global Change, Environ Risk Assess, Sustainable Land Use • Research Article
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose

Biochar application to soil has gained great interest as a land-based climate change mitigation solution. However, it lacks long-term field assessment on the effectiveness of biochar compared with other widely applied land management—such as stubble retention—on soil organic carbon (SOC) accumulation and carbon (C) distribution and persistence in the soil matrix.

Materials and method

Here, we conducted a 9-year field trial in a temperate agroecosystem of North China to identify and quantify the location of C residing in the soil matrix (determined by two physical fractionation methods), as affected by land management—stubble removed (control), stubble returned at 15 t ha−1 year−1 (SR), two biochar doses at 4.5 t ha−1 year−1 (B4.5; equivalent to feedstock in SR) and 9.0 t ha−1 year−1 (B9.0).

Results and discussion

The results showed that biochar application significantly increased SOC in the free and occluded particulate organic matter (POM) and mineral-associated organic matter (MAOM) fractions. Compared to B4.5 and B9.0, SR was less effective in soil C accrual in the occluded POM and MAOM, although the largest increase of C occurred in the free POM (about 10–17 g kg–1 soil). Consistent with this, biochar rather than stubble retention significantly increased C in (i) coarse POM (i.e., unprotected POM, > 250 μm) by 190–210%, (ii) microaggregates (μAgg) by 56–70%, and (iii) MAOM in silt–clay fraction (iMAOM) by 4–12%, but the biochar dose effect was statistically insignificant. Importantly, biochar significantly increased chemically recalcitrant C in soils that were further protected in the μAgg and iMAOM fractions.

Conclusions

We conclude that biochar application was more beneficial for SOC accumulation and preservation than stubble management, particularly in the microaggregates and organo-mineral complexes, under the intensive cropping systems.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the anonymous referees for their valuable comments and suggestions that greatly improved the manuscript.

Funding

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province, China (ZR2021MC155), the National Key Research & Development Program of China (No. 2021YFD1901002), and the Natural Science Foundation of China (31601834).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development in Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, 100081, Beijing, China

    Aiping Zhang

  2. Beijing Key Laboratory of Biodiversity and Organic Farming, College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, 100193, Beijing, China

    Xiao Wang, Di Wu & Zhangliu Du

  3. Australian Rivers Institute and School of Environment and Science, Griffith University, Nathan Campus, 4111, QLD, Australia

    Yunying Fang

  4. Yantai Research Institute, China Agricultural University, Yantai, 264670, China

    Xueyang Sun

  5. NSW Department of Primary Industries, Wagga Wagga Agricultural Institute, Wagga Wagga, NSW, 2650, Australia

    Ehsan Tavakkoli

  6. Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China, 100081

    Yuyi Li

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  1. Aiping Zhang
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Zhang, A., Wang, X., Fang, Y. et al. Biochar more than stubble management affected carbon allocation and persistence in soil matrix: a 9-year temperate cropland trial. J Soils Sediments 23, 3018–3028 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-023-03546-3

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