Effect of carbon-enriched digestate on the microbial soil activity.
<h4>Objectives</h4>As a liquid organic fertilizer used in agriculture, digestate is rich in many nutrients (i.e. nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur, calcium, potassium); their utilization may be however less efficient in soils poor in organic carbon (due to low carbon:nitrogen ratio). In order...
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Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | article |
Lenguaje: | EN |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://doaj.org/article/e0b0799349ca4b5287c6824cd11a685a |
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Sumario: | <h4>Objectives</h4>As a liquid organic fertilizer used in agriculture, digestate is rich in many nutrients (i.e. nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur, calcium, potassium); their utilization may be however less efficient in soils poor in organic carbon (due to low carbon:nitrogen ratio). In order to solve the disadvantages, digestate enrichment with carbon-rich amendments biochar or humic acids (Humac) was tested.<h4>Methods</h4>Soil variants amended with enriched digestate: digestate + biochar, digestate + Humac, and digestate + combined biochar and humic acids-were compared to control with untreated digestate in their effect on total soil carbon and nitrogen, microbial biomass carbon, soil respiration and soil enzymatic activities in a pot experiment. Yield of the test crop lettuce was also determined for all variants.<h4>Results</h4>Soil respiration was the most significantly increased property, positively affected by digestate + Humac. Both digestate + biochar and digestate + Humac significantly increased microbial biomass carbon. Significant negative effect of digestate + biochar (compared to the control digestate) on particular enzyme activities was alleviated by the addition of humic acids. No significant differences among the tested variants were found in the above-ground and root plant biomass.<h4>Conclusions</h4>The tested organic supplements improved the digestate effect on some determined soil properties. We deduced from the results (carbon:nitrogen ratio, microbial biomass and activity) that the assimilation of nutrients by plants increased; however, the most desired positive effect on the yield of crop biomass was not demonstrated. We assume that the digestate enrichment with organic amendments may be more beneficial in a long time-scaled trial. |
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