Campus Units
Agronomy
Document Type
Article
Publication Version
Accepted Manuscript
Publication Date
2019
Journal or Book Title
GCB Bioenergy
DOI
10.1111/gcbb.12665
Abstract
Applying biochar to agricultural soils has been proposed as a means of sequestering C while simultaneously enhancing soil health and agricultural sustainability. However, our understanding of the long-term effects of biochar and annual versus perennial cropping systems and their interactions on soil properties under field conditions is limited. We quantified changes in soil C concentration and stocks and other soil properties 6 yr after biochar applications to corn (Zea mays L.) and dedicated bioenergy crops on a Midwestern US soil. Treatments were: no-till continuous corn, Liberty switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.), and low diversity prairie grasses, 45% big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii), 45% Indiangrass (Sorghastrum nutans) and 10% sideoats grama (Bouteloua curtipendula), as main plots, and wood biochar (9.3 Mg ha-1 with 63% total C) and no biochar applications as subplots. Biochar-amended plots accumulated more C (14.07 vs. 2.25 Mg soil C ha-1) than nonbiochar amended plots in the 0 to 30 cm soil depth but other soil properties were not significantly affected by the biochar amendments. The total increase in C stocks in the biochar-amended plots was nearly twice (14.07 Mg soil C ha-1) the amount of C added with biochar 6 yr earlier (7.25 Mg biochar C ha-1), suggesting a negative priming effect of biochar on formation and/or mineralization of native soil organic C. Dedicated bioenergy crops increased soil C concentration by 79% and improved both aggregation and available water in the 0 to 5 cm soil depth. Biochar did not interact with the cropping systems. Overall, biochar has potential to increase soil C stocks both directly and through negative priming, but in this study had limited effects on other soil properties after 6 yr.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Copyright Owner
The Authors
Copyright Date
2019
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Blanco-Canqui, Humberto; Laird, David; Heaton, Emily; Rathke, Sam; and Sharma Acharya, Bharat, "Soil carbon increased by twice the amount of biochar carbon applied after six years: Field evidence of negative priming" (2019). Agronomy Publications. 617.
https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/agron_pubs/617
Comments
This is a manuscript of an article published as Blanco‐Canqui, Humberto, David Laird, Emily Heaton, Sam Rathke, and Bharat Sharma Acharya. "Soil carbon increased by twice the amount of biochar carbon applied after six years: Field evidence of negative priming." GCB Bioenergy (2019). doi: 10.1111/gcbb.12665.