Effects of Biochar Amendment on Nitrous Oxide Emission, Bacterial and Fungal Community Composition in a Tobacco-Planting Soil

• Published in: Journal of soil science and plant nutrition Vol. 23; no. 3; pp. 3106 - 3119
• Main Authors: Tang, Yuan, Gao, Weichang, Chen, Yi, Zhang, Qinghai, Cheng, Jianzhong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01.09.2023; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Agriculture; Bacteria; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Bradyrhizobium; Carbon; Charcoal; Climate change; Community composition; Community structure; Composition; Denitrifying bacteria; Ecology; Emissions; Environment; Field tests; Fungi; Gases; Life Sciences; Microorganisms; Nicotiana tabacum; Nitrates; Nitrogen; Nitrous oxide; Original Paper; Phosphorus content; Plant Sciences; Potassium; Precipitation; Pseudomonas; Soil amendment; Soil microorganisms; Soil Science & Conservation; Soil structure; Soils; Substrates; Tobacco; Trichocladium; Trichoderma; United States > US; China; Fungi; Bacteria; Nitrous oxide; High-throughput sequencing; Biochar
• ISSN: 0718-9508; 0718-9516
• DOI: 10.1007/s42729-023-01288-2

Biochar (BC) is a promising soil amendment for mitigating nitrous oxide (N 2 O) emissions. However, field experiments have reported inconsistencies in the changes in N 2 O emissions, and the underlying microbial mechanisms are unclear. A tobacco ( Nicotiana tabacum L.) field under different tobacco BC application rates (0, 1, 10, 25, and 50 t ha −1 ) was established to investigate the changes of soil N 2 O emissions and microbial community compositions. BC amendments significantly increased the cumulative N 2 O emissions by 1.96–4.18 folds, mainly due to enhanced soil substrate availability under tobacco BC application. Shifts of bacterial community structure at the phylum level under BC amendment were observed, while changes in the structure of soil fungi at the genus level occurred. The abundance of denitrifying bacteria ( Bradyrhizobium and Pseudomonas ) and denitrifying fungi ( Trichocladium and Trichoderma ) was significantly increased with BC amendment, contributing to the stimulated soil N 2 O emissions by affecting aerobic denitrification. The field N 2 O mitigation of BC application should be reconsidered if tobacco BC is applied to upland soils.