Biochemical Soil Health Indicators and Turnover of Carbon and Nitrogen in Biochar Amended Soils.

Biochemical Soil Health Indicators and Turnover of Carbon and Nitrogen in Biochar Amended Soils

Rajesh Chintala*, Eric Mbonimpa, Thomas Schumacher, Sandeep Kumar, David Clay, Stephanie Hansen, Douglas Malo

Department of Plant Science, South Dakota State University,  

Brookings, South Dakota, USA

Sustenance of soil health is vital to enhance the climate change resilience of agricultural systems and to deliver ecological services. Soil health and its functionality can be influenced by the changes in carbon and nitrogen dynamics due to agronomic management factors including the incorporation of soil amendments. Biochar materials are assumed to influence positively the soil health and decrease the carbon foot prints of agricultural cropping systems. An on-farm study is conducted to investigate the impact of biochar application on the dynamics of soil organic carbon (SOC) and soil nitrogen (N) stocks. Biochars produced from carbon optimized gasification of corn stover (Zea mays L.), Pondeorosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Lawson and C. Lawson) wood residue, and switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) were applied at 1% rate to a Maddock soil (Sandy, Mixed, Frigid Entic Hapludolls) of an eroded upper landscape position and a Brookings soil (Fine-Silty, Mixed, Superactive, Frigid Pachic Hapludolls) of depositional landscape position under corn-soybean rotation. In this ongoing field trial, the changes in soil organic carbon (total organic carbon, microbial biomass C, hydrolyzable C, and d ¹³C) and N pools (microbial biomass N, inorganic N, and d ¹⁵N) are quantified to assess the influence of biochars on the lability and turn over times of SOC and N stocks in two different landscape positions.

Contact: Rajesh Chintala, Department of Plant Science, SNP 247, Box 2140c, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD, 57006. Email: rajesh.chintala@sdstate.edu