Four biochar types, produced by slow pyrolysis of poultry litter (PL) and pine chips (P) at 400 or 500°C, were added to two adjacent soils with contrasting soil organic matter (SOM) content (8.9 vs. 16.1 g C kg À1). The N mineralization rate was determined during 14-week incubations and assessments were made of the microbial biomass C, dehydrogenase activity, and the microbial community structure (PLFA-extraction). The addition of PL biochars increased the net N mineralization (i.e., compared to the control treatment) in both soils, while for treatments with P biochars net N immobilization was observed in both soils. Increasing the pyrolysis temperature of both feedstock types led to a decrease in net N mineralization. The ratio of Bacterial to Fungal PLFA biomarkers also increased with addition of biochars, and particularly in the case of the 500°C biochars. Next to feedstock type and pyrolysis temperature, SOM content clearly affected the assessed soil biological parameters, viz. net N mineralization or immobilization, MBC and dehydrogenase activity were all greater in the H soil. This might be explained by an increased chance of physical contact between the microbial community activated by SOM mineralization upon incubation and discrete biochar particles. However, when considering the H soil's double C and N content, these responses were disproportionally small, which may be partly due to the L soil's, somewhat more labile SOM. Nonetheless, increasing SOM content and microbial biomass and activity generally appears to result in greater mineralization of biochar. Additionally, higher N mineralization after PL addition to the H soil with lower pH than the L soil can be due to the liming effect of the PL biochars.
After decades of searching for a practical method to estimate the N mineralization capacity of soil, there is still no consistent methodology. Indeed it is important to have practical methods to estimate soil nitrogen release for plant uptake and that should be appropriate, less time consuming, and cost effective for farmers. We fractionated soil organic matter (SOM) to assess different fractions of SOM as predictors for net N mineralization measured from repacked (disturbed) and intact (undisturbed) soil cores in 14 weeks of laboratory incubations. A soil set consisting of surface soil from 18 cereal and root-cropped arable fields was physically fractionated into coarse and fine free particulate OM (coarse fPOM and fine fPOM), intra-microaggregate particulate OM (iPOM) and silt and clay sized OM. The silt and clay sized OM was further chemically fractionated by oxidation with 6% NaOCl to isolate an oxidation-resistant OM fraction, followed by extraction of mineral bound OM with 10% HF (HF-res OM). Stepwise multiple linear regression yielded a significant relationship between the annual N mineralization (kg N/ha) from undisturbed soil and coarse fPOM N (kg N/ha), silt and clay N (kg N/ha) and its C:N ratio (R2 = 0.80; P < 0.01). The relative annual N mineralization (% of soil N) from disturbed soils was related to coarse fPOM N, HF-res OC (% of soil organic carbon) and its C:N ratio (R2 = 0.83; P < 0.01). Physical fractions of SOM were thus found to be the most useful predictors for estimating the annual N mineralization rate of undisturbed soils. However, the bioavailability of physical fractions was changed due to the disturbance of soil. For disturbed soils, a presumed stable chemical SOM fraction was found to be a relevant predictor indicating that this fraction still contains bio-available N. The latter prompted a revision in our reasoning behind selective oxidation and extraction as tools for characterizing soil organic N quality with respect to N availability. Nonetheless, the present study also underscores the potential of a combined physical and chemical fractionation procedure for isolating and quantifying N fractions which preferentially contribute to bulk soil N mineralization. The N content or C:N ratio of such fractions may be used to predict N mineralization in arable soils
Land-use history is often overlooked when assessing soil fertility of intensive cropland production systems. The unusually high organic carbon (OC) content of many sandy cropland soils in Northwestern Europe is unexpected given their general low clay content (3-8%) and organic matter (OM) input typical of cropland, but appears to be related to historical heathland land-use. Clay fraction OM composition was compared between two groups of sandy cropland soils with (HC) or without (CC) a history of heathland/forest land-use. Light ( 1.6-2.2 gem"') and heavy (>2.2 gem"') clay fractions in HC soils were nearly twice as rich in OC (on average 199 g kg"') compared with those of CC soils (on average 109 g kg" '). The hypothesized preferential presence of stable heathland derived OM in hght soil fractions, was not supported by our data. Pyrolysis-field ionization mass spectrometty of the clay fractions revealed a more decomposed character of OM in the CC soils and lasting long-term influence of land-use history on SOM composition. This could be concluded from higher proportions of lipids and sterols, a lower thermostability in the HC compared with the CC soils, and enrichment of alkylaromatics and heterocyclic N-containing compounds in the latter. The density fractionation methodology separated organic-mineral particles with similar OM loadings but lower proportions of sterols and medium to long-chained lipids in the heavy compared with the light clay fraction. Given the very high clay OC loadings (6-1 é mg C m"') and low binding capacity ofthe quartz/kaolinite/mica dominated clays, we hypothesize that OM-OM interactions are involved as an OM stabilization mechanism. However, contrary to our hypothesis high clay OC loading (and hence thick OM layering) were found in all sandy croplands regardless of land-use history or density fraction.
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