A synthesis of soil organic carbon mineralization in response to biochar amendment

Abstract

Biochar amendment can alter native soil organic carbon (SOC) mineralization via the priming effect (PE); however, its direction, intensity, and controls over a broad geographic scale are not clear, undermining the predictions of SOC dynamics as impacted by biochar inputs. Here, we synthesized 5,720 measurements of CO2 effluxes from 329 soil samples with and without 13C/14C labeled-biochar additions to quantify the spatial pat terns and temporal dynamics of the PE and assess the underlying environmental drivers. Across all data, biochar amendment has led to a slight but significant positive PE (i.e., 56 mg C kg− 1 soil), with stronger PEs in natural ecosystems than in agricultural soils. Negative PE occurred in the short term (i.e., <9 days after biochar addition) and subsequently shifted to a strong positive PE (i.e., 364–966 days) and remained in an insignificant PE thereafter (i.e., >1450 days). Notably, soils from rainfed croplands had the lowest negative PE (− 28.76 mg C kg− 1 soil). Grass-derived biochar produced at a low pyrolysis temperature (i.e., 300–400 ◦C) induced the strongest positive PE (244 mg C kg− 1 soil). The results of our structural equation model indicated that biochar pyrolysis temperature and soil C:N ratio had the largest negative and direct association with biochar-induced PE, whereas incubation temperature and microbial biomass C exerted the greatest positive and direct effects on the PE. Variance partitioning analyses further revealed that both biochar and soil properties together accounted for 73% of the explained variance in biochar-induced PE. Overall, these results add to our understanding of biochar induced SOC priming as impacted by different land-use types, soils, and biochar properties. The amendment of wood-derived biochars produced at high pyrolysis temperatures (>500 ◦C) to rainfed croplands could serve as a promising strategy to achieve maximum soil C sequestration