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Effect of carbon-enriched digestate on the microbial soil activity.
- Source :
- PLoS ONE, Vol 16, Iss 7, p e0252262 (2021)
- Publication Year :
- 2021
- Publisher :
- Public Library of Science (PLoS), 2021.
-
Abstract
- ObjectivesAs 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.MethodsSoil 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.ResultsSoil 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.ConclusionsThe 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.
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 19326203
- Volume :
- 16
- Issue :
- 7
- Database :
- Directory of Open Access Journals
- Journal :
- PLoS ONE
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- edsdoj.0b0799349ca4b5287c6824cd11a685a
- Document Type :
- article
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0252262