Deciphering the Effects of Waste Amendments on Particulate Organic Carbon and Soil C-Mineralization Dynamics

Abstract

It is important to understand the dynamics of soil carbon to study the effects of waste amendment inputs on soil organic carbon decomposition. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of waste amendment carbon input on the soil organic carbon (SOC) content, soil particulate organic carbon (POC) content and soil organic carbon mineralization rate dynamics. A 60-day experiment was carried out in the laboratory. The following treatments were compared: (1) CK: soil without amendments; (2) FW1: soil with food waste compost (soil/food waste compost = 100:1); (3) FW2: soil with food waste compost (soil/food waste compost = 100:2); (4) GW1: soil with garden waste compost (soil/garden waste compost = 100:0.84); (5) GW2: soil with garden waste compost (soil/garden waste compost = 100:1.67); (6) FGW1: soil amendments mixture (soil/food waste compost/garden waste compost = 100:0.5:0.42); (7) FGW2: soil amendments mixture (soil/food waste compost/garden waste compost = 100:1:0.84); the inputs of amendment carbon to FW1, GW1 and FGW1 were 2.92 g kg−1, the inputs of amendment carbon to FW2, GW2 and FGW2 were 5.84 g kg−1. The results showed that the addition of waste amendments increased the amount of cumulative mineralization from 95% to 262% and accelerated the rate of soil mineralization. After adding organic materials, the change in the soil organic carbon mineralization rate could be divided into two stages: the fast stage and the slow stage. The dividing point of the two stages was approximately 10 days. When equal amounts of waste amendment carbon were input to the soil, there was no significant difference in SOC between food waste and garden waste. However, SOC increased with the amount of amendment addition. However, for POC, there was no significant difference between the different amounts of carbon input to the garden waste compost treatments. SOC and POC were significantly correlated with the cumulative emissions of CO2.