Effects of biochar and magnesium fertilizer on gaseous carbon release from an acidic tea garden soil
To explore the effects of biochar and magnesium fertilizer additions on soil gaseous carbon fluxes and to gain a deeper understanding where carbon goes in the soil,four treatments,namely conventional fertilization(CK),additional biochar application(BC),additional magnesium fertilizer application(MG),and additional biochar and magnesium fertilizer application(MGBC)were used in acid tea garden soil for two years in this study,and then soil and leaf litter were collected from the treatments and used in an indoor culture experiment for over months.The effects of biochar and magnesium fertilizer on gaseous carbon release and soil microbial biomass carbon in the acidic tea garden soil were studied.The results showed that:For soil with leaf litter treatment,biochar increase the release of CO2 and CH4,and cumulative emissions of CO2-C and CH4-C at the end of the experiment were(484.80±58.74)g·m-2 and(135.76±12.05)mg·m-2 respectively.Magnesium fertilizer reduced the release of soil CO2 and CH4,with cumulative emissions of CO2-C and CH4-C of(255.80±4.55)g·m-2 and(76.63±4.11)mg·m-2 respectively.For soil without leaf litter treatment,MGBC treatment had the greatest effect on soil CO2 release,and the cumulative CO2-C emission was(136.74±5.03)g·m-2.In this study,both biochar and magnesium fertilizers promoted the release of soil VOCs-C,with magnesium fertilizer increasing cumulative emissions by 23.82% .Overall,biochar promoted soil carbon release while magnesium fertilizer inhibited it co-application of biochar and magnesium fertilizer without litter had the greatest effect on the release of soil gaseous carbon.Although the proportion of VOCs-C in gaseous carbon is small,its flux is slightly higher than that of CH4-C,and thus it cannot be ignored.