Soil organic carbon and nitrogen pools as affected by compost applicationsto a sandy-loam soil in Québec

Abstract

. 2008. Soil organic carbon and nitrogen pools as affected by compost applications to a sandy-loam soil in Quebec. Can. J. Soil Sci. 88: 443Á450. Compost contributes plant-available nutrients for crop production and adds partially decomposed carbon (C) to the soil organic carbon (SOC) pool. The effect of compost applications and other agricultural practices on SOC and total nitrogen (N) pools was determined in a sandy-loam Humic Gleysol at the Research Farm of McGill University, Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec. Experimental plots with continuous silage corn (Zea mays L.) and silage corn-soybean (Glycine max L. Merr.) production were under conventional tillage (CT) or no-tillage (NT) management. Composted cattle manure was applied each spring at rates of 0, 5, 10 and 15 Mg (dry weight) ha(1 and supplemental NPK fertilizers were added to meet crop requirements. The C input from crop residues was affected by tillage, crop rotations and compost application, but differences in the SOC and total N pools were due to compost applications. After 5 yr, compost-amended plots gained 1.35 to 2.02 Mg C ha(1 yr (1 in the SOC pool and 0.18 to 0.24 Mg N ha(1 yr (1 in the total N pool, as compared with initial pool sizes when the experiment was initiated. These gains in SOC and total N were achieved with agronomic rates of compost and supplemental NPK fertilizers, selected to match the phosphorus requirements of silage corn. Such judicious use of compost has the potential to increase the SOC and total N pools in agroecosystems under annual crop production.

Organic carbon and nitrogen stocks in a clay loam soil 10 years after a single compost application

“…1 and 2), SOC and TN stocks (Table 4), and DSOC and DTN values (Table 4) with increasing application rate of FWC are perhaps to be expected, and similar results have been obtained by others for both FWC and cattle manure compost (e.g., Pagano et al 2008;Whalen et al 2008). The disproportionate and irregular changes in apparent C and N recoveries (Fig.…”

“…are recycled as ''value added'' composts for restoring degraded or impoverished land, such as replacing soil organic matter that was depleted over time, or not present originally (Larney and Angers 2012). Short-term increases in soil organic carbon (SOC) and total soil nitrogen (TN) contents due to compost application are expected, as composts usually contain much greater concentrations of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) than unamended soil and, as a result, the short-term increases in SOC and TN are usually proportional to the amount and frequency of compost application (Tambone et al 2007;Chang et al 2008;Whalen et al 2008;Nayak et al 2009). Warman (2005) found, however, that although 12 annual additions of composts derived from manure, food wastes, yard wastes and manure-straw increased the SOC and TN levels of a sandy loam soil substantially, field vegetable yields (carrots, peppers, onions, tomatoes) were still not significantly greater than those obtained using synthetic fertilizers.…”

Vineyard Compost Supplemented with Trichoderma Harzianum T78 Improve Saline Soil Quality

“…Total organic carbon was expected to increase with compost application (Whalen et al, 2008;Laudicina et al, 2011), but it was diminished when compost supplemented by T78 was applied at high salt concentrations. This can be explained by the fact that the natural response of microorganisms to salinity was to increase their energy demand and, as a consequence, C mineralization occurred.…”

Greenhouse gas emission from the total process of swine manure composting and land application of compost

“…This soaring increase rate of GHG emission requires more attention to GHG reduction. Optimistically, the SOC input by compost additions was deemed to enhance carbon sequestration (Whalen et al, 2008), offset GHG emissions from biofuel agriculture practices (Thelen et al, 2010) and substitute for N fertilizer (Gajalakshmi and Abbasi, 2008) through reductions in the GWP. However, they were conservatively not considered in this study to calculate the direct emissions.…”

“…GHG emissions from composting of manure (Czepiel et al, 1996), other organic wastes (Recycled Organics Unit, 2006;USEPA, 2002), and land application of compost (Whalen et al, 2008) had been widely studied. However, these studies paid little attention to their global warming potential.…”