Effect of biochar amendment on soil carbon balance and soil

microbial activity
S. Steinbeiss1, G. Gleixner1, M. Antonietti2
1Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry Jena, 2Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces Golm

Introduction Conclusions
The increased burning of fossil fuels for energy supply within the last 100 Mean residence times of the biochars demonstrate that biochars produced by
years released huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. In hydrothermal pyrolysis would add to the decadal soil carbon pool.
contrast, the naturally build-up of fossil fuel deposits takes millions of years.
Inherited soil microorganisms were able to adapt to the new carbon source and
To counteract the problems following increasing atmospheric CO2
utilized both types of biochar. 90
concentrations, methods have to be developed to retain organic carbon in a
80
stable form that can be stored for longer time periods. Condensation grade and

mean residence time in years

chemical structure of the 70

We investigated the behavior of hydrothermally synthesized biochar in two biochars were the main 60

soil types, arable soil and forest soil, that differ in the composition of their drivers for all differences 50

microbial community. Parent material for biochar production was glucose and observed between our 40

yeast, respectively, at which the yeast-derived biochar contained 5 % treatments. 30

nitrogen. Labeling of the biochar with 13C enabled the quantification of carbon 20
Our results suggest that
losses via respiration and the calculation of turnover times for both biochars 10
residence times of
in the different soils. 0
biochar in soils can be arable/glucose arable/yeast forest/glucose forest/yeast
manipulated with the aim treatment
The extraction of phospholipid fatty acids from soils incubated with biochar
to „design“ the best Fig. 3: Calculated mean residence times for the biochars in
was used as tool to quantify microbial biomass in the soil and to identify the different treatments. Error bars reflect the uncertainty
possible biochar for a
groups of microorganisms that are able to utilize biochar as carbon source. caused by the variability of the proportion of biochar
given soil type. carbon in the respiration gas.

Results
arable/glucose forest/glucose
Respiration rates strongly decreased during incubation in all
e

arable/yeast 18 forest/yeast
se
os

18
st

co

st
uc

ea

ea
lu
l
/g

/y

treatments (Fig. 1).

/g

/y
le

le

le

st

st

st

16 16
ab

ab

ab

re

re

re

isotopic shift in ‰ (treatment - initial)

ar

ar

ar

fo

fo

fo

0 14 14

-2
Biochar addition always increased soil organic carbon loss. Yeast-
12 12
-4 derived biochar seemed to be better degradable than glucose-
10 10
-6
derived biochar in arable and forest soil (Fig. 2).
-8 8 8
% carbon lost

-10 Calculated turnover times varied between 4 and 29 years 6 6

-12
-14
depending on biochar and soil type (Fig. 3). 4 4

-16 2 2

-18
Soil microbes utilized both biochars. Glucose-derived biochar was
0 0
-20 soil organic carbon primarily decomposed by gram-negative bacteria, while yeast- fungi gram(+) gram(-) bacteria fungi gram(+) gram(-) bacteria

-22 biochar carbon

Fig. 2: Losses of biochar carbon and soil organic
carbon after four month of incubation given relative
to the respective initial amounts in the treatments.
derived biochar was taken up by fungi (Fig. 4).
Consequently, yeast-derived biochar strongly increased
proportion of fungi in the soil microbial community (Tab. 1).
Fig. 4: Isotopic shift of PLFA biomarkers (treatment after
incubation – initial values) for certain microbial groups, i.e.
the fungi, gram-negative bacteria, gram-positive bacteria and
bacteria in general. Error bars reflect variability in isotopic
shift within a group of microorganisms.

Outlook
• Investigation of biochar synthesized from different plant parent material Table 1: Proportion of the amount of PLFAs assigned to different microbial groups, i.e. fungi, gram-negative
bacteria, gram-positive bacteria and bacteria in general, before and after incubation; sd refers to standard
deviation between three replicates.
• Introduction of additional elements (e.g. P, S, cations) to “tune” residence
times treatment fungi sd gram(-) sd gram(+) sd bacteria sd
bacteria bacteria
• Analysis of temporal changes in soil properties (e.g. cation exchange Arable/Initial 11.9 0.1 41.9 0.1 26.9 0.1 11.5 0.1
capacity, water retention) caused by changing characteristics of biochar Arable/Glucose 10.8 0.3 41.8 2.1 25.0 2.4 13.0 0.3
during decomposition Arable/Yeast 28.0 0.9 30.7 0.4 18.8 0.5 15.7 0.2
Forest/Initial 11.0 0.2 43.6 0.5 26.8 0.4 10.8 0.0
• Identification of most important characteristics of the biochar structure to Forest/Glucose 10.7 0.2 37.7 0.3 29.9 0.4 13.8 0.1
Forest/Yeast 27.6 0.8 28.9 0.3 20.3 0.7 16.8 0.1
“design” the ideal material for a given soil type
Arable 12.0 41.9 26.9 11.6
• Long-term investigations in natural systems Forest 10.9 39.0 27.3 14.5

Experimental design
arable
Arable soil from Jena Experiment field site Forest soil from Hainich National Park 60
arable/glucose
• Biochar addition corresponding to arable/yeast
δ13CA = -27.7 ‰ δ13CF = -27.1 ‰
-1

Signature: A Signature: F
respiration rate in mg C d

50 forest
forest/glucose
30 % of initial soil carbon content
Initial Carbon content: 2.5 % Initial Carbon content: 5.5 % 40 forest/yeast

• Labelling of biochar with 13C

30

• Biochar derived from glucose

20
Æ δ13CG = 3.6 ‰
10
• Biochar derived from yeast
0
Æ contained 5 % N 0 5 10 15 20 25

control + biochar + biochar control + biochar + biochar week after experiment start

(A) from Glucose from Yeast (F) from Glucose from Yeast Æ δ13CY = -2.8 ‰
Fig. 1: Respiration rates for all treatments
(AG) (AY) (FG) (FY) including controls during incubation.