Journal ArticleDOI
Carbon-nutrient stoichiometry to increase soil carbon sequestration
Clive A. Kirkby,Clive A. Kirkby,Alan Richardson,Leonard Wade,Graeme Batten,Christopher Blanchard,John A. Kirkegaard +6 more
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In this paper, the effect of N, P and S availability on the net humification efficiency (NHE) following incubation of soil with wheaten straw was investigated, showing that inorganic nutrient availability is critical to sequester C into the more stable FF-SOM pool irrespective of soil type and C input.Abstract:
The more stable fine fraction pool of soil organic matter (FF-SOM; <0.4 mm) has more nitrogen, phosphorus and sulphur (N, P, S) per unit of carbon (C) than the plant material from which it originates and has near constant ratios of C:N:P:S. Consequently, we hypothesised that the sequestration of C-rich crop residue material into the FF-SOM pool could be improved by adding supplementary nutrients to the residues based on these ratios. Here we report on the effect of N, P and S availability on the net humification efficiency (NHE), the change in the size of the FF-SOM pool (as estimated by fine fraction C (FF-C)), following incubation of soil with wheaten straw. Four diverse soils were subjected to seven consecutive incubation cycles, with wheaten straw (10 t ha equivalent) added at the beginning of each cycle, with and without inorganic N, P, S addition (5 kg N, 2 kg P and 1.3 kg S per tonne of straw). This nutrient addition doubled the mean NHE in all soils (from 7% to 15%) and when applied at twice the rate increased NHE further (up to 29%) for the two soils that received this treatment. The FF-N, -P and -S levels increased in concert with FF-C levels in all soils in close agreement with published stoichiometric ratios (C:N:P:S = 10,000:833:200:143). Microbial biomass-C (MB-C) levels were estimated during one incubation cycle and found to increase in parallel with FF-C from 448 μg MB-C g soil (no nutrient addition) to 727 μg MB-C g soil (plus nutrients) and 947 μg MB-C g soil (plus 2× nutrients). There was a significant relationship between MB-C and the change in FF-C during that incubation cycle, providing evidence of a close relationship between the microbial biomass and FF-SOM formation. The two to four-fold increases in NHE achieved with nutrient addition demonstrated that inorganic nutrient availability is critical to sequester C into the more stable FF-SOM pool irrespective of soil type and C input. This has important implications for strategies to build soil fertility or mitigate climate change via increased soil organic C, as the availability and value of these nutrients must be considered.read more
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Journal ArticleDOI
Network analysis reveals functional redundancy and keystone taxa amongst bacterial and fungal communities during organic matter decomposition in an arable soil
Samiran Banerjee,Clive A. Kirkby,Dione Schmutter,Andrew Bissett,John A. Kirkegaard,Alan Richardson +5 more
TL;DR: Overall, it is shown that addition of nutrients reduces diversity but favours the keystone taxa, and thereby increases microbial biomass.
Journal ArticleDOI
Integrating plant litter quality, soil organic matter stabilization, and the carbon saturation concept
TL;DR: The model builds on the Microbial Efficiency-Matrix Stabilization framework by suggesting the effect of litter quality on SOM stabilization is modulated by the extent of soil C saturation such that high-quality litters are not always stabilized in SOM with greater efficiency than low- quality litters.
Journal ArticleDOI
The underappreciated potential of peatlands in global climate change mitigation strategies.
Jens Leifeld,Lorenzo Menichetti +1 more
TL;DR: Restoring peatlands is 3.4 times less nitrogen costly and involves a much smaller land area demand than mineral soil carbon sequestration, calling for a stronger consideration of peatland rehabilitation as a mitigation measure.
Journal ArticleDOI
Plant growth improvement mediated by nitrate capture in co-composted biochar
Claudia Kammann,Hans-Peter Schmidt,Nicole Messerschmidt,Sebastian Linsel,Diedrich Steffens,Christoph Müller,Hans-Werner Koyro,Pellegrino Conte,Stephen Joseph +8 more
TL;DR: It is demonstrated that co-composting considerably promoted biochars’ positive effects, largely by nitrate (nutrient) capture and delivery, and hypothesize that surface ageing plus non-conventional ion-water bonding in micro- and nano-pores promoted nitrate capture in biochar particles.
Journal ArticleDOI
Plant Functional Traits: Soil and Ecosystem Services.
TL;DR: This work highlights the links between plant functional traits and soil properties in relation to four major ecosystem processes involved in vital ecosystem services: food production, crop protection, climate change mitigation, and soil and water conservation, aiming towards ecological intensification of sustainable agricultural and soil management.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
Soil respiration profiles and protozoan enumeration agree as microbial growth indicators.
Soren Christensen,Regin Rønn,Flemming Ekelund,B. Andersen,J. Damgaard,U. Friberg-Jensen,Lars Stoumann Jensen,H. Kill,B. Larsen,Jørgen Bo Larsen,C. Riis,K. Thingsgaard,C. Thirup,Andreas Tom-Petersen,Lars Vesterdal +14 more
TL;DR: Observations lend support to the proposal that respiration patterns may be valuable in an analysis of nutrient limitation of microbial growth in soils by supporting enumeration of bacterivorous protozoa.
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Fructan to nitrogen ratio as an indicator of nutrient stress in wheat crops
TL;DR: NIR analysis provides a rapid and accurate assessment of the fructan content of the wheat stem, as well as allowing detection of growth-limiting nutrient stresses, and so is proving to be a useful technique for making crop management decisions.
Soil Humus Fractions
D. W. Anderson,J. J. Schoenau +1 more
TL;DR: The first principle postulates that humic substances represent a supermixture of an extremely wide array of chemical structures and it is evident that classical approaches based on isolation, purification and finally identification of discrete chemical compounds and structures do not apply as discussed by the authors.
Journal ArticleDOI
Humification and nitrogen mineralization of crop residues in semi-arid Argentina
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors developed an equation which utilizes only one constant, permits calculation of the young (fresh) and old (humified) soil organic matter pools and predicts the production of available or mineralized nitrogen.