Abstract
A laboratory incubation experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of direct incorporation of either wheat straw or its biochar into a cultivated Chernozem on gross N transformations calculated by the 15N pool dilution technique and nitrous oxide (N2O) production rates. Incorporation of wheat straw stimulated gross NH +4 (ammonium) and NO −3 (nitrate) immobilization rates by 302 and 95.2 %, respectively, suppressed gross nitrification rates by 32.2 %, and increased N2O production by 37.7 %. In contrast, the addition of a biochar produced from the wheat straw did not influence any of the above N cycling processes. Therefore, application of biochar could be a possible management strategy for long-term C sequestration (through soil storage of stable C contained in the biochar) in soils without increasing N2O production rates, but could not effectively immobilize NO −3 in the soil.
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Acknowledgments
Funding for this work was provided by the China Opportunity Fund from the University of Alberta, the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the National Basic Research Program of China (2010CB434812), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (40921061), and Innovative Scholar Development Program of Jiangsu Province (SBK20082282). We thank Mr. Clarence Gilbertson at the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Lethbridge Research Centre and Ms. Fengping Wu of the University of Alberta/Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University for assistance.
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Cheng, Y., Cai, Zc., Chang, S.X. et al. Wheat straw and its biochar have contrasting effects on inorganic N retention and N2O production in a cultivated Black Chernozem. Biol Fertil Soils 48, 941–946 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-012-0687-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-012-0687-0