Substitution of mineral fertilizers with biogas digestate plus biochar increases physically stabilized soil carbon but not crop biomass in a field trial.

Various organic amendments are scrutinized as potential agricultural management strategies to ensure soil productivity while mitigating climate change due to the accumulation of soil organic matter (OM). The objectives of this experiment were to study the effects of biochar and biogas digestate versus mineral fertilizer on crop aboveground biomass as well as fractions and mineralization of soil organic carbon (SOC). Samples of a sandy Cambisol were taken 14 months after establishment of a field experiment in Germany. Treatments included application of equal nitrogen in the form of mineral fertilizer or liquid biogas digestate without biochar (B 0), with 1 Mg biochar ha−1season−1 for two growing seasons (B 2), or with 40 Mg biochar ha−1 application (B 40). Soil fractionation in water separated water-extractable and free particulate (fPOM) OM, followed by sonification and sieving to isolate occluded particulate (oPOM) and < 20 μm aggregate-occluded and mineral-associated OM. CO 2 emissions were measured during 92-day laboratory incubations at 10 and 20 °C. Analysis of variance found digestate lowered (p < 0.05) rye aboveground biomass compared to mineral fertilizer (9.3 vs. 10.6 Mg ha−1), while biochar had no effect. B 40 treatments increased C mineralization during incubation by 16% and contained 3.8 times more SOC than B 0 treatments. This additional SOC was allocated to fPOM (52%), oPOM (22%), and the <20 μm fraction (26%). Digestate application increased SOC content of oPOM by 11% compared to mineral fertilizer. Furthermore, combined application of 40 Mg biochar ha−1 with digestate resulted in 20% more SOC in the <20 μm fraction than biochar with mineral fertilizer. The lack of a significant fertilizer or biochar-fertilizer interaction effect on C mineralization during incubation demonstrates the stability of SOC from digestate alone or in combination with biochar. The absence of significant differences in SOC content between B 0 and B 2 treatments demonstrates the difficulty of documenting SOC sequestration in the field at low biochar application rates. Unlabelled Image • Compared to mineral fertilizer, digestate increased physically stabilized soil C. • 14 months after biochar application, 52% of additional soil C was not occluded. • Biochar increased CO 2 emissions during laboratory incubation, while digestate did not. • Biogas digestate resulted in lower aboveground crop biomass than mineral fertilizer. • 40 Mg biochar ha−1 applied to a sandy soil had no effect on aboveground crop biomass. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]