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Dynamics of soil organic carbon mineralization and enzyme activities after two months and six years of biochar addition

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Abstract

Applying biochar to agricultural soils has been proposed as a means of sequestering carbon while simultaneously enhancing soil health and agricultural sustainability. While, our understanding of the long-term effects of biochar on soil organic carbon mineralization and enzyme activities under field conditions is limited. In our study, soil samples, which were improved by biochar after two months and six years, were collected from biochar-amended treatments with seven biochar application rates (0, 2.5, 5, 10, 20, 30, and 40 t ha−1, respectively) in upland red soil. The results showed that the soil chemical properties (available P, pH, soil organic carbon, total nitrogen, and C/N ratio) after two months of biochar addition increased more significantly than those after six years of biochar addition. The cumulative soil organic carbon mineralization (Cm) was increased rapidly at first and then decreased gradually and finally flattened out in the late incubation. The Cm/SOC ratios were significantly lower in C1 to C6 treatments than in C0 treatment. High application rates (40 t ha−1) of biochar inhibited the carbon mineralization, while the effects diminished after six years of biochar addition. The multiple linear model and correlation analysis suggested that the effects of invertase activity and total nitrogen on Cm were more significant than other indexes.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Grace Billy and Cunliu Tang for their grammatical edits and comments on this paper.

Funding

This work was supported by funding from the National Key R & D Program (2016 YFD 0200305), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province, China (No. BK 20150909); the Major Projects for Science and Technology Development of Zhejiang Province, China (No. 2019C02061); the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51779260); Henan province Keypoint Research and Invention Program (192102110051); and the Initial Scientific Research Fund of Zhejiang University of science and technology (F701119J07).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095, People’s Republic of China

    Zewen Jin, Xiaoling Zhang, Xiaomin Chen, Zhaoqiang Han & Pengchuang Tao

  2. Key Laboratory of Recycling and Eco-treatment of Waste Biomass of Zhejiang Province, School of Environmental and Natural Resources, Zhejiang University of Science & Technology, Hangzhou, 310023, Zhejiang, China

    Zewen Jin & Lifeng Ping

  3. Farmland Irrigation Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Xinxiang, 453003, China

    Zhenjie Du

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  1. Zewen Jin
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  3. Xiaomin Chen
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Correspondence to Xiaomin Chen.

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Jin, Z., Zhang, X., Chen, X. et al. Dynamics of soil organic carbon mineralization and enzyme activities after two months and six years of biochar addition. Biomass Conv. Bioref. 13, 1153–1162 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13399-021-01301-7

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