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Cattle manure biochar and earthworm interactively affected CO2 and N2O emissions in agricultural and forest soils: Observation of a distinct difference

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Abstract

The application of manure-derived biochar offers an alternative to avoid the direct application of manure to soil causing greenhouse gas emission. Soil fauna, especially earthworms, can markedly stimulate carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from soil. This study therefore investigated the effect of cattle manure biochar (added at rates of 0, 2%, or 10%, coded as BC0, BC2 and BC10, respectively) application, with or without earthworm Aporrectodea turgida, on emissions of CO2 and N2O and changes of physic-chemical properties of agricultural and forest soils in a laboratory incubation experiment. The BC10 treatment significantly enhanced cumulative CO2 emissions by 27.9% relative to the untreated control in the agricultural soil. On the contrary, the BC2 and BC10 treatments significantly reduced cumulative CO2 emissions by 16.3%–61.1% and N2O emissions by 92.9%–95.1% compared to the untreated control in the forest soil. The addition of earthworm alone significantly enhanced the cumulative CO2 and N2O fluxes in agricultural and forest soils. Cumulative CO2 and N2O fluxes were significantly increased when BC2 and BC10 were applied with earthworm in the agricultural soil, but were significantly reduced when BC10 was applied with earthworm in the forest soil. Our study demonstrated that biochar application interacted with earthworm to affect CO2 and N2O emissions, which were also dependent on the soil type involved. Our study suggests that manure biochar application rate and use of earthworm need to be carefully studied for specific soil types to maximize the climate change mitigation potential of such management practices.

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Acknowledgements

Financial support was provided by the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) in the form of a Discovery grant to SXC (No. 249664-2013). This study was also supported by Beijing Natural Science Foundation (No. 6202021). Xiaoqiang Gong would like acknowledge the scholarship from the China Scholarship Council (CSC No. 201706510040).

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Author notes

  1. Contributed equally to this work: Xiaoqiang Gong, Jinbiao Li

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Renewable Resources, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2E3, Canada

    Xiaoqiang Gong, Jinbiao Li, Scott X. Chang & Zhengfeng An

  2. College of Forestry, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, 100083, China

    Xiaoqiang Gong, Xiangyang Sun & Suyan Li

  3. State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Xiaoqiang Gong & Hui Wang

  4. Co-Innovation Center for Sustainable Forestry in Southern China, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, 210037, China

    Jinbiao Li

  5. Key Laboratory of Grassland Resources of the Ministry of Education and Key Laboratory of Forage Cultivation, Processing and High Efficient Utilization of the Ministry of Agriculture, College of Grassland, Resources and Environment, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot, 010011, China

    Qian Wu

  6. State Key Laboratory of Subtropical Silviculture, Zhejiang A&F University, Lin’an, 311300, China

    Chengpeng Huang

Authors
  1. Xiaoqiang Gong
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  2. Jinbiao Li
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  3. Scott X. Chang
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  4. Qian Wu
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  5. Zhengfeng An
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  6. Chengpeng Huang
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  7. Xiangyang Sun
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  8. Suyan Li
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  9. Hui Wang
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Correspondence to Scott X. Chang, Xiangyang Sun or Hui Wang.

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The authors reported no potential conflict of interest. We also confirm that the studies did not involve endangered or protected species.

Highlights

• Earthworms increase CO2 and N2O emissions in agricultural and forest soil.

• 10% biochar suppresses CO2 and N2O emissions in forest soil.

• Biochar interacted with earthworm to significant affect CO2 and N2O emissions.

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Gong, X., Li, J., Chang, S.X. et al. Cattle manure biochar and earthworm interactively affected CO2 and N2O emissions in agricultural and forest soils: Observation of a distinct difference. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng. 16, 39 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-021-1473-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-021-1473-8

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