Comparing straw, compost, and biochar regarding their suitability as agricultural soil amendments to affect soil structure, nutrient leaching, microbial communities, and the fate of pesticides

Siedt, Martin; Schäffer, Andreas; Smith, Kilian E. C.; Nabel, Moritz; Roß-Nickoll, Martina; Dongen, Joost Thomas van

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.141607

Cited by 292 publications

(127 citation statements)

References 181 publications

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“…Thousands of scientific publications, in the last three decades, deal with compost, illustrating the beneficial effects on soils depleted of its organic matter due to the reckless use of inorganic fertilizers [32]. The benefits of compost on soil chemical-physical-biological properties, and on crop productivity have been widely demonstrated [33][34][35]. In our pot experiment the positive effect on the seedlings growth and biomass was confirmed once more, in almost all the treated crops and groups.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 58%

Effects of Compost Amendment on Glycophyte and Halophyte Crops Grown on Saline Soils: Isolation and Characterization of Rhizobacteria with Plant Growth Promoting Features and High Salt Resistance

et al. 2021

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Soil salinization and desertification due to climate change are the most relevant challenges for the agriculture of the 21st century. Soil compost amendment and plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGP-R) are valuable tools to mitigate salinization and desertification impacts on agricultural soils. Selection of novel halo/thermo-tolerant bacteria from the rhizosphere of glicophytes and halophytes, grown on soil compost amended and watered with 150/300 mM NaCl, was the main objective of our study. Beneficial effects on the biomass, well-being and resilience, exerted on the assayed crops (maize, tomato, sunflower and quinoa), were clearly observable when soils were amended with 20% compost despite the very high soil electric conductivity (EC). Soil compost amendment not only was able to increase crop growth and biomass, but also their resilience to the stress caused by very high soil EC (up to 20 dS m−1). Moreover, compost amendment has proved itself a valuable source of highly halo- (4.0 M NaCl)/thermo tolerant rhizobacteria (55 °C), showing typical PGP features. Among the 13 rhizobacterial isolates, molecularly and biochemically characterized, two bacterial strains showed several biochemical PGP features. The use of compost is growing all around the world reducing considerably for farmers soil fertilization costs. In fact, only in Italy its utilization has ensured, in the last years, a saving of 650 million euro for the farmers, without taking into account the environment and human health benefits. Furthermore, the isolation of halo/thermo-tolerant PGPR strains and their use will allow the recovery and cultivation of hundreds of thousands of hectares of saline and arid soils now unproductive, making agriculture more respectful of agro-ecosystems also in view of upcoming climate change.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 58%

Effects of Compost Amendment on Glycophyte and Halophyte Crops Grown on Saline Soils: Isolation and Characterization of Rhizobacteria with Plant Growth Promoting Features and High Salt Resistance

et al. 2021

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“…4% w/w), can also improve other fertility attributes such as CEC, TOC, available P and total N content (e.g. Castaldi et al, 2005;Diacono and Montenurro, 2009;Tandy et al, 2009;Manzano et al, 2016;Garau et al, 2019b;Siedt et al, 2021; Table 2). For instance, it has been shown that soil organic carbon and humic content can increase up to 30 and 2% respectively after repeated MSWC amendment (Diacono and Montemurro, 2010;Siedt et al, 2021).…”

Section: Municipal Solid Waste Compostmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Castaldi et al, 2005;Diacono and Montenurro, 2009;Tandy et al, 2009;Manzano et al, 2016;Garau et al, 2019b;Siedt et al, 2021; Table 2). For instance, it has been shown that soil organic carbon and humic content can increase up to 30 and 2% respectively after repeated MSWC amendment (Diacono and Montemurro, 2010;Siedt et al, 2021). Moreover, remarkable DOC increases were observed in MSWC-amended soils and this was positively correlated with increased microbial abundance and activity (Manzano et al, 2016;Abou Jaoude et al, 2019;Garau et al, 2019b).…”

Section: Municipal Solid Waste Compostmentioning

confidence: 99%

Innovative amendments derived from industrial and municipal wastes enhance plant growth and soil functions in potentially toxic elements-polluted environments

et al. 2021

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Highlights- Water Treatment Residuals, Red Muds, Municipal Solid Waste Compost and Biochar can reduce labile PTE in contaminated soils.- When used as amendments, WTR, RM, MSWC and BCH improve soil chemical fertility of PTE-polluted soils.- WTR, RM, MSWC and BCH stimulate soil enzyme activity and heterotrophic bacterial abundance in PTE-polluted soils.- WTR, RM, MSWC and BCH can be used as strategic amendments to enhance plant growth in environments polluted by PTE. Potentially toxic elements (PTE), e.g. As, Sb, Cd, Cu, Pb, Zn, can severely impact soil element cycling, organic matter turnover and soil inhabiting microbiota. Very often this has dramatic consequences for plant growth and yield which are greatly restricted in PTE-contaminated soils. The use of innovative amendments to reduce the labile pool of such soil contaminants, can result as a feasible and sustainable strategy to improve the fertility and functionality of PTE-contaminated soils as well as to exploit these latter from an agronomic point of view. Water treatment residuals (WTR), red muds (RM), organic-based materials originating from the waste cycle, e.g. municipal solid waste compost (MSWC) and biochar (BCH), have emerged in the last decades as promising amendments. In this paper, we report a synthesis of the lessons learned from research carried out in the last 20 years on the use of the above-mentioned innovative amendments for the manipulation of soil fertility and functionality in PTE-contaminated soils. The amendments considered possess physico-chemical properties useful to reduce labile PTE in soil (e.g. alkaline pH, porosity, Fe/Al phases, specific functional groups and ionic composition among the others). In addition, they contain organic and inorganic nutrients which can contribute to improve the soil chemical, microbial and biochemical status. This is often reflected by a higher organic matter content in amended soils and/or an increase of the cation exchange capacity, available P and total N and/or dissolved organic C. As a result, soil microbial abundance, in particular heterotrophic fungi and bacteria, and enzyme activities (e.g. dehydrogenase, urease and β-glucosidase) are commonly enhanced in amended soils, while plant growth can be significantly stimulated. Overall, the obtained results suggest that the studied amendments can be used to reduce PTE bioavailability in polluted soils, improve soil microbial status and functionality, and enhance the productivity of different crops. This can offer a precious opportunity for the productive recovery of PTE-polluted soils.

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“…The choice of carrier material is an important factor for microbial fixation (Rikmann et al, 2016), and activated carbon, peat, sodium alginate, and biochar are common carriers as described by previous studies (Luo et al, 2015;Abu Talha et al, 2018). Among them, biochar is applied extensively for its simple preparation, low cost, as well as promotion of microbial attachment, metabolic activities, and tolerance for adverse environments (Lee et al, 2016;Xia et al, 2016;Siedt et al, 2021). Biochar has the ability to improve physicochemical properties of soil, including cation exchange capacity (CEC), organic carbon content (OC), and bulk density.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Remediation of Chromium-Contaminated Soil Based on Bacillus cereus WHX-1 Immobilized on Biochar: Cr(VI) Transformation and Functional Microbial Enrichment

Chen

Sun

et al. 2021

Front. Microbiol.

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Microorganisms are applied to remediate chromium (Cr)-contaminated soil extensively. Nevertheless, the microbial loss and growth inhibition in the soil environment restrain the application of this technology. In this study, a Cr(VI)-reducing strain named Bacillus cereus WHX-1 was screened, and the microbial aggregates system was established via immobilizing the strain on Enteromorpha prolifera biochar to enhance the Cr(VI)-reducing activity of this strain. The mechanism of the system on Cr(VI) transformation in Cr-contaminated soil was illuminated. Pot experiments indicated that the microbial aggregates system improved the physicochemical characteristics of Cr-contaminated soil obviously by increasing organic carbon content and cation exchange capacity, as well as decreasing redox potential and bulk density of soil. Moreover, 94.22% of Cr(VI) was transformed into Cr(III) in the pot, and the content of residue fraction Cr increased by 63.38% compared with control check (CK). Correspondingly, the physiological property of Ryegrass planted on the Cr-contaminated soil was improved markedly and the main Cr(VI)-reducing microbes, Bacillus spp., were enriched in the soil with a relative abundance of 28.43% in the microbial aggregates system. Considering more active sites of biochar for microbial aggregation, it was inferred that B. cereus WHX-1 could be immobilized by E. prolifera biochar, and more Cr(VI) was transformed into residue fraction. Cr stress was decreased and the growth of plants was enhanced. This study would provide a new perspective for Cr-contaminated soil remediation.

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Comparing straw, compost, and biochar regarding their suitability as agricultural soil amendments to affect soil structure, nutrient leaching, microbial communities, and the fate of pesticides

Cited by 292 publications

References 181 publications

Effects of Compost Amendment on Glycophyte and Halophyte Crops Grown on Saline Soils: Isolation and Characterization of Rhizobacteria with Plant Growth Promoting Features and High Salt Resistance

Effects of Compost Amendment on Glycophyte and Halophyte Crops Grown on Saline Soils: Isolation and Characterization of Rhizobacteria with Plant Growth Promoting Features and High Salt Resistance

Innovative amendments derived from industrial and municipal wastes enhance plant growth and soil functions in potentially toxic elements-polluted environments

Remediation of Chromium-Contaminated Soil Based on Bacillus cereus WHX-1 Immobilized on Biochar: Cr(VI) Transformation and Functional Microbial Enrichment

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