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Vannini A, Carbognani M, Chiari G, Forte TGW, Rodolfi M, Ganino T, Petraglia A. Biochar effects on early decomposition of standard litter in a European beech forest (northern Italy). THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2023; 903:166224. [PMID: 37572925 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.166224] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/09/2023] [Revised: 08/09/2023] [Accepted: 08/09/2023] [Indexed: 08/14/2023]
Abstract
The release of biochar (BC) on forest soil is a strategy aimed at increasing carbon reserves and forest productivity. The effect of BC amendments on the decomposition of different quality litter is, however, poorly understood. With this study we investigate the effects of wood-derived BC applications on early decomposition in a European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) forest through the burial of standard material, i.e. green tea and rooibos tea (high- and low-quality litter surrogates, respectively). Two main questions were addressed: 1) Do BC applications influence the decomposition of high- and low-quality standard litter and, if so, in what way? and 2) Does this effect (if measurable) depend on where the sample is placed with respect to the BC application layer? To test BC amendment effects, four application percentages were employed (0, 10, 20 and 100 %), after which standard litter mass loss was recorded. To investigate the effects of sample position, only three BC application percentages were used (0, 10 and 20 %), with teabags buried at three different depths - within the BC amended layer, between this layer and the unamended soil, and below the latter. Results show that early decomposition of high-quality standard litter was not influenced by BC applications, while a significant reduction in mass loss of low-quality standard litter was observed when the percentage of BC application was higher, specifically of litter within the 20 % and 100 % BC amended layers. Decomposition was also affected by sample position relative to the BC layer, exhibiting higher levels of mass loss when samples were placed within the BC amended layer. Overall, BC applications on beech forest soils not only seem to produce negligible effects on the early decomposition rate of high-quality standard litter, but such applications also seem to have the ability to reduce carbon loss following plant material degradation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrea Vannini
- Department of Chemistry, Life Sciences and Environmental Sustainability, University of Parma, Parco Area delle Scienze 11/A, 43124 Parma, Italy
| | - Michele Carbognani
- Department of Chemistry, Life Sciences and Environmental Sustainability, University of Parma, Parco Area delle Scienze 11/A, 43124 Parma, Italy
| | - Giorgio Chiari
- Department of Chemistry, Life Sciences and Environmental Sustainability, University of Parma, Parco Area delle Scienze 11/A, 43124 Parma, Italy
| | - T'ai G W Forte
- Department of Chemistry, Life Sciences and Environmental Sustainability, University of Parma, Parco Area delle Scienze 11/A, 43124 Parma, Italy.
| | - Margherita Rodolfi
- Department of Food and Drug, University of Parma, Parco Area delle Scienze 11/A, 43124 Parma, Italy
| | - Tommaso Ganino
- Department of Food and Drug, University of Parma, Parco Area delle Scienze 11/A, 43124 Parma, Italy; National Research Council, Institute of BioEconomy (IBE-CNR), Via Madonna del Piano 10, 50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy
| | - Alessandro Petraglia
- Department of Chemistry, Life Sciences and Environmental Sustainability, University of Parma, Parco Area delle Scienze 11/A, 43124 Parma, Italy
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Ferrante M, Lövei GL, Nunes R, Monjardino P, Lamelas-López L, Möller D, Soares AO, Borges PA. Gains and losses in ecosystem services and disservices after converting native forest to agricultural land on an oceanic island. Basic Appl Ecol 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.baae.2022.11.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
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Meyer UN, Tischer A, Freitag M, Klaus VH, Kleinebecker T, Oelmann Y, Kandeler E, Hölzel N, Hamer U. Enzyme kinetics inform about mechanistic changes in tea litter decomposition across gradients in land-use intensity in Central German grasslands. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2022; 836:155748. [PMID: 35526633 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.155748] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/03/2021] [Revised: 05/02/2022] [Accepted: 05/02/2022] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Grassland ecosystems provide important ecosystem services such as nutrient cycling and primary production that are affected by land-use intensity. To assess the effects of land-use intensity, operational and sensitive ecological indicators that integrate effects of grassland management on ecosystem processes such as organic matter turnover are needed. Here, we investigated the suitability of measuring the mass loss of standardized tea litter together with extracellular enzyme kinetics as a proxy of litter decomposition in the topsoil of grasslands along a well-defined land-use intensity gradient (fertilization, mowing, grazing) in Central Germany. Tea bags containing either green tea (high-quality litter) or rooibos tea (low-quality litter) were buried in 5 cm soil depth. Litter mass loss was measured after three (early-stage decomposition) and 12 months (mid-stage decomposition). Based on the fluorescence measurement of the reaction product 4-methylumbelliferone, Michaelis-Menten enzyme kinetics (Vmax: potential maximum rate of activity; Km: substrate affinity) of five hydrolases involved in the carbon (C)-, nitrogen (N)- and phosphorus (P)-cycle (β-glucosidase (BG), cellobiohydrolase (CBH), cellotriohydrolase (CTH), 1,4-β-N-acetylglucosaminidase (NAG), and phosphatase (PH)) were determined in tea litter bags and in the surrounding soil. The land-use intensity index (LUI), summarizing fertilization, mowing, grazing, and in particular the frequency of mowing were identified as important drivers of early-stage tea litter decomposition. Mid-stage decomposition was influenced by grazing intensity. The higher the potential activity of all measured C-, N- and P-targeting enzymes, the higher was the decomposition of both tea litters in the early-phase. During mid-stage decomposition, individual enzyme parameters (Vmax of CTH and PH, Km of CBH) became more important. The tea bag method proved to be a suitable indicator which allows an easy and cost-effective assessment of land-use intensity effects on decay processes in manged grasslands. In combination with enzyme kinetics it is an appealing approach to identify mechanisms driving litter break down.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ulf-Niklas Meyer
- Institute of Landscape Ecology, University of Münster, Heisenbergstraße 2, 48149 Münster, Germany
| | - Alexander Tischer
- Department of Soil Science, Friedrich-Schiller University Jena, Löbdergraben 32, 07743 Jena, Germany
| | - Martin Freitag
- Institute of Landscape Ecology, University of Münster, Heisenbergstraße 2, 48149 Münster, Germany
| | - Valentin H Klaus
- Insitute of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zürich, Universitätstrasse 2, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Till Kleinebecker
- Institute for Landscape Ecology and Resource Management, Giessen University, Heinrich-Buff-Ring 26-32, 35392 Gießen, Germany
| | - Yvonne Oelmann
- Geoecology, Department of Geosciences, University of Tübingen, Rümelinstr. 19-23, 72070 Tübingen, Germany
| | - Ellen Kandeler
- Institute of Soil Science and Land Evaluation, Department of Soil Biology, University of Hohenheim, Emil Wolff Str. 27, 70599 Stuttgart, Germany
| | - Norbert Hölzel
- Institute of Landscape Ecology, University of Münster, Heisenbergstraße 2, 48149 Münster, Germany
| | - Ute Hamer
- Institute of Landscape Ecology, University of Münster, Heisenbergstraße 2, 48149 Münster, Germany.
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Lind L, Harbicht A, Bergman E, Edwartz J, Eckstein RL. Effects of initial leaching for estimates of mass loss and microbial decomposition-Call for an increased nuance. Ecol Evol 2022; 12:e9118. [PMID: 35923944 PMCID: PMC9339754 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.9118] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/23/2022] [Revised: 06/17/2022] [Accepted: 06/27/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Decomposition is essential to carbon, nutrient, and energy cycling among and within ecosystems. Several methods have been proposed for studying litter decomposition by using a standardized and commercially available substrate. One of these methods is the Tea Bag Index (TBI) which uses tea bags (green and rooibos tea) incubated for ~90 days. The TBI is now applied all over the globe, but despite its usefulness and wide application, the TBI (as well as other methods) does not explicitly account for the differences in potential loss of litter mass due to initial leaching in habitats with large differences in moisture. We, therefore, studied the short-term mass losses (3-4 h) due to initial leaching under field and laboratory conditions for green and rooibos tea using the TBI and contextualized our findings using existing long-term mass loss (90 days) in the field for both aquatic and terrestrial environments. For both tea litter types, we found a fast initial leaching rate, which could be mistaken for decomposition through microbial activity. This initial leaching was higher than the hydrolyzable fraction given in the description of the TBI. We also found that leaching increased with increasing temperature and that leaching in terrestrial environments with high soil moisture (>90%) is almost as large as in aquatic environments. When comparing our findings to long-term studies, we found that up to 30-50% of the mass loss of green tea reported as decomposition could be lost through leaching alone in high moisture environments (>90% soil moisture and submerged). Not accounting for such differences in initial leaching across habitats may lead to a systematic overestimation of the microbial decomposition in wet habitats. Future studies of microbial decomposition should adjust their methods depending on the habitat, and clearly specify the type of decomposition that the study focuses on.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lovisa Lind
- Department of Environmental and Life Sciences – BiologyKarlstad UniversityKarlstadSweden
| | - Andrew Harbicht
- Department of Environmental and Life Sciences – BiologyKarlstad UniversityKarlstadSweden
- Fisheries and Ecosystem Sciences, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Gulf Fisheries CentreMonctonNew BrunswickCanada
- Population Ecology DivisionFisheries and Oceans Canada, Bedford Institute of OceanographyDartmouthCanada
| | - Eva Bergman
- Department of Environmental and Life Sciences – BiologyKarlstad UniversityKarlstadSweden
| | - Johannes Edwartz
- Department of Environmental and Life Sciences – BiologyKarlstad UniversityKarlstadSweden
| | - Rolf Lutz Eckstein
- Department of Environmental and Life Sciences – BiologyKarlstad UniversityKarlstadSweden
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Daelemans R, Hulsmans E, Honnay O. Both organic and integrated pest management of apple orchards maintain soil health as compared to a semi-natural reference system. JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT 2022; 303:114191. [PMID: 34861508 DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.114191] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/10/2021] [Revised: 11/18/2021] [Accepted: 11/25/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Growing concerns about the negative environmental impacts of agriculture have resulted in the increasing adoption of farming systems that try to reconcile crop production with environmental sustainability, such as organic farming. As organic farming refrains from using synthetic inputs, it heavenly relies on maintaining soil health. However, it is still poorly understood how organic management performs in terms of maintaining soil health in real commercial and heterogeneous farm settings as compared to conventional management, and especially as compared to a natural reference system. Here, we compared a set of soil health indicators among 24 commercial apple orchards that were either managed organically or conventionally using Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices. In addition, we quantified the same indicators in 12 semi-natural grasslands as a benchmark to assess to what extent soil processes and functions have been degraded due to agricultural practices. As soil heath indicators, we quantified soil bulk density, organic matter content, organic carbon content, organic carbon stock, total nitrogen (N), potential heterotrophic respiration, potential net N mineralization, litter decomposition and litter stabilization, and we added the diversity of the herbaceous vegetation and the soil microbiome as covariates in our models. We found no differences between organic and IPM orchards, and neither of the farming systems showed evidence of impaired soil health compared to the semi-natural benchmark, with the exception of higher decomposition rates measured in both orchard types. We observed, however, high spatial variation in soil health between drive and crop rows within the orchards. Especially in the IPM orchards, crop rows showed impaired soil health compared to the adjacent drive rows, indicating that there is still opportunity to improve soil management in the IPM system. In addition, our results show that a considerable part of the variation in soil characteristics can be attributed to the study site, suggesting that both natural heterogeneity and personal management preferences by individual farmers are more important than the management system. Overall, and at least in terms of the soil variables measured in this study, our results suggest that perennial crop systems can be managed in a sustainable way, without jeopardizing soil health.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robin Daelemans
- Plant Conservation and Population Biology, Division of Ecology, Evolution and Biodiversity Conservation, Department of Biology, KU Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 31, B-3001 Heverlee, Belgium.
| | - Eva Hulsmans
- Plant Conservation and Population Biology, Division of Ecology, Evolution and Biodiversity Conservation, Department of Biology, KU Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 31, B-3001 Heverlee, Belgium.
| | - Olivier Honnay
- Plant Conservation and Population Biology, Division of Ecology, Evolution and Biodiversity Conservation, Department of Biology, KU Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 31, B-3001 Heverlee, Belgium.
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Górecki K, Rastogi A, Stróżecki M, Gąbka M, Lamentowicz M, Łuców D, Kayzer D, Juszczak R. Water table depth, experimental warming, and reduced precipitation impact on litter decomposition in a temperate Sphagnum-peatland. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2021; 771:145452. [PMID: 33736185 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.145452] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/05/2020] [Revised: 01/22/2021] [Accepted: 01/23/2021] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
The Tea Bag Index (TBI) method was used to estimate the litter decomposition rate in peatland exposed for climate manipulation (increased temperature and reduced precipitation) at two contrasting sites differing in water table depth (WTD) dynamics. To manipulate climate on peatland, the prototyped Open Top Chambers (OTC) and automated rain-out shelters were used. OTCs increased daytime air temperatures by ~1.7 °C at the driest plots exposed for an increase of air temperature and reduced precipitation, while the increase of the average daily air temperature was lower than 0.9 °C. However, OTCs cooled down the peat temperature even by 0.8 °C and this effect was most pronounced for daytime rather than night-time conditions. The precipitation amount was reduced by 26%. The tea bags were buried at 8 cm depth for 83 and 172 days starting from the 19th of April 2019. Our observation proved that although decomposition rates were dependent on temperature, WTD and its fluctuations are the main factors controlling the rates of litter decomposition in waterlogged ecosystems like ours. At waterlogged Sphagnum-dominated peatlands, the interrelation between different environmental factors may mitigate the impact of warming and reduced precipitation on litter decomposition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Krzysztof Górecki
- Department of Entomology and Environmental Protection, Faculty of Agronomy, Horticulture and Bioengineering, Poznań University of Life Sciences, Dąbrowskiego 159, 60-594 Poznań, Poland
| | - Anshu Rastogi
- Laboratory of Bioclimatology, Department of Ecology and Environmental Protection, Faculty of Environmental Engineering and Mechanical Engineering, Poznań University of Life Sciences, Piątkowska 94, 60-649 Poznań, Poland
| | - Marcin Stróżecki
- Laboratory of Bioclimatology, Department of Ecology and Environmental Protection, Faculty of Environmental Engineering and Mechanical Engineering, Poznań University of Life Sciences, Piątkowska 94, 60-649 Poznań, Poland
| | - Maciej Gąbka
- Department of Hydrobiology, Faculty of Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Uniwersytetu Poznańskiego 6, 61-614 Poznań, Poland
| | - Mariusz Lamentowicz
- Laboratory of Climate Change Ecology, Faculty of Geographical and Geological Sciences, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, B. Krygowskiego 10, 61-680 Poznań, Poland
| | - Dominika Łuców
- Laboratory of Climate Change Ecology, Faculty of Geographical and Geological Sciences, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, B. Krygowskiego 10, 61-680 Poznań, Poland; Past Landscape Dynamics Laboratory, Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization, Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, Warszawa 00-818, Poland
| | - Dariusz Kayzer
- Department of Mathematical and Statistical Methods, Faculty of Agronomy, Horticulture and Bioengineering, Poznań University of Life Sciences, Wojska Polskiego 28, 60-637 Poznań, Poland
| | - Radosław Juszczak
- Laboratory of Bioclimatology, Department of Ecology and Environmental Protection, Faculty of Environmental Engineering and Mechanical Engineering, Poznań University of Life Sciences, Piątkowska 94, 60-649 Poznań, Poland.
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Bell NGA, Smith AJ, Zhu Y, Beishuizen WH, Chen K, Forster D, Ji Y, Knox EA. Molecular level study of hot water extracted green tea buried in soils - a proxy for labile soil organic matter. Sci Rep 2020; 10:1484. [PMID: 32001762 PMCID: PMC6992787 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-58325-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/12/2019] [Accepted: 01/09/2020] [Indexed: 12/05/2022] Open
Abstract
Understanding the composition of soil organic matter (SOM) is vital to our understanding of how soils form, evolve and respond to external stimuli. The shear complexity of SOM, an inseparable mixture of thousands of compounds hinders the determination of structure-function relationships required to explore these processes on a molecular level. Litter bags and soil hot water extracts (HWE) have frequently been used to study the transformation of labile SOM, however these are still too complex to examine beyond compound classes. In this work, a much simpler mixture, HWE buried green tea, was investigated by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance Mass Spectrometry (FT-ICR-MS), as a proxy for labile SOM. Changes induced by the burial over 90 days in a grassland, woodland and two peatland sites, one damaged by drainage and one undergoing restoration by drain-blocking, were analysed. Major differences between the extracts were observed on the level of compound classes, molecular formulae and specific molecules. The causes of these differences are discussed with reference to abiotic and biotic processes. Despite the vastly different detection limits of NMR and MS, chemometric analysis of the data yielded identical separation of the samples. These findings provide a basis for the molecular level interrogation of labile SOM and C-cycling processes in soils.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicholle G A Bell
- EaStChem, School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, David Brewster Rd, Edinburgh, EH9 3FJ, UK.
| | - Alan J Smith
- EaStChem, School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, David Brewster Rd, Edinburgh, EH9 3FJ, UK
| | - Yufan Zhu
- EaStChem, School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, David Brewster Rd, Edinburgh, EH9 3FJ, UK
| | - William H Beishuizen
- EaStChem, School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, David Brewster Rd, Edinburgh, EH9 3FJ, UK
| | - Kangwei Chen
- EaStChem, School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, David Brewster Rd, Edinburgh, EH9 3FJ, UK
| | - Dan Forster
- EaStChem, School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, David Brewster Rd, Edinburgh, EH9 3FJ, UK
| | - Yiran Ji
- EaStChem, School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, David Brewster Rd, Edinburgh, EH9 3FJ, UK
| | - Elizabeth A Knox
- EaStChem, School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, David Brewster Rd, Edinburgh, EH9 3FJ, UK
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Fanin N, Bezaud S, Sarneel JM, Cecchini S, Nicolas M, Augusto L. Relative Importance of Climate, Soil and Plant Functional Traits During the Early Decomposition Stage of Standardized Litter. Ecosystems 2019. [DOI: 10.1007/s10021-019-00452-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
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Effects of Soil Aggregate Stability on Soil Organic Carbon and Nitrogen under Land Use Change in an Erodible Region in Southwest China. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC HEALTH 2019; 16:ijerph16203809. [PMID: 31658612 PMCID: PMC6843380 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph16203809] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/01/2019] [Revised: 10/04/2019] [Accepted: 10/08/2019] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Abstract
Soil aggregate stability can indicate soil quality, and affects soil organic carbon (SOC) and soil organic nitrogen (SON) sequestration. However, for erodible soils, the effects of soil aggregate stability on SOC and SON under land use change are not well known. In this study, soil aggregate distribution, SOC and SON content, soil aggregate stability, and soil erodibility were determined in the soils at different depths along the stages following agricultural abandonment, including cropland, abandoned cropland, and native vegetation land in an erodible region of Southwest China. Soil aggregation, soil aggregate stability, and SOC and SON content in the 0–20 cm depth soils increased after agricultural abandonment, but soil texture and soil erodibility were not affected by land use change. Soil erodibility remained in a low level when SOC contents were over 20 g·kg−1, and it significantly increased with the loss of soil organic matter (SOM). The SOC and SON contents increased with soil aggregate stability. This study suggests that rapidly recovered soil aggregate stability after agricultural abandonment promotes SOM sequestration, whereas sufficient SOM can effectively maintain soil quality in karst ecological restoration.
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