2016/04/26 by Maria C. Hernandez‐Soriano, Bart Kerré, Peter M. Kopittke +2 · 2 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Engineering · Materials Science · Chemistry · #Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics #Soil and Unsaturated Flow #Clay minerals and soil interactions #Biochar #Soil water #Loam #Environmental chemistry #Chemistry #Residue (chemistry) #Organic matter #Soil science #Environmental science #Pyrolysis #Organic chemistry
paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/srep25127
openalex publication_date 2016/04/26 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23
The use of biochar can contribute to carbon (C) storage in soil. Upon addition of biochar, there is a spatial reorganization of C within soil particles, but the mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we used Fourier transformed infrared-microscopy and confocal laser scanning microscopy to examine this reorganization. A silty-loam soil was amended with three different organic residues and with the biochar produced from these residues and incubated for 237 d. Soil respiration was lower in biochar-amended soils than in residue-amended soils. Fluorescence analysis of the dissolved organic matter revealed that biochar application increased a humic-like fluorescent component, likely associated with biochar-C in solution. The combined spectroscopy-microscopy approach revealed the accumulation of aromatic-C in discrete spots in the solid-phase of microaggregates and its co-localization with clay minerals for soil amended with raw residue or biochar.The co-localization of aromatic-C:polysaccharides-C was consistently reduced upon biochar application. We conclude that reduced C metabolism is an important mechanism for C stabilization in biochar-amended soils.