Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-21T16:17:35.392Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Partitioning of Microbially Respired CO2 Between Indigenous and Exogenous Carbon Sources During Biochar Degradation Using Radiocarbon and Stable Carbon Isotopes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 November 2018

Niels C Munksgaard Open the ORCID record for Niels C Munksgaard [Opens in a new window] ,
Anna V McBeath ,
Philippa L Ascough ,
Vladimir A Levchenko ,
Alan Williams  and
Michael I Bird Open the ORCID record for Michael I Bird [Opens in a new window]
Niels C Munksgaard*
Affiliation:
College of Science and Engineering and Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science, James Cook University, Smithfield, QLD4878, Australia Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods, Charles Darwin University, Casuarina, NT0810, Australia
Anna V McBeath
Affiliation:
College of Science and Engineering and Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science, James Cook University, Smithfield, QLD4878, Australia Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, Queensland Government, South Johnstone, QLD4859, Australia
Philippa L Ascough
Affiliation:
NERC Radiocarbon Facility, Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre (SUERC), Scottish Enterprise Technology Park, Rankine Avenue, East KilbrideG75 0QF, UK
Vladimir A Levchenko
Affiliation:
Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), KirraweeDC, NSW2232, Australia
Alan Williams
Affiliation:
Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), KirraweeDC, NSW2232, Australia
Michael I Bird
Affiliation:
College of Science and Engineering and Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science, James Cook University, Smithfield, QLD4878, Australia ARC Centre for Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, James Cook University, Smithfield, QLD4878, Australia
*
*Corresponding author. Email: niels.munksgaard@jcu.edu.au.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Pyrolized carbon in biochar can sequester atmospheric CO2 into soil to reduce impacts of anthropogenic CO2 emissions. When estimating the stability of biochar, degradation of biochar carbon, mobility of degradation products, and ingress of carbon from other sources must all be considered. In a previous study we tracked degradation in biochars produced from radiocarbon-free wood and subjected to different physico-chemical treatments over three years in a rainforest soil. Following completion of the field trial, we report here a series of in-vitro incubations of the degraded biochars to determine CO2 efflux rates, 14C concentration and δ13C values in CO2 to quantify the contributions of biochar carbon and other sources of carbon to the CO2 efflux. The 14C concentration in CO2 showed that microbial degradation led to respiration of CO2 sourced from indigenous biochar carbon (≈0.5–1.4 μmoles CO2/g biochar C/day) along with a component of carbon closely associated with the biochars but derived from the local environment. Correlations between 14C concentration, δ13C values and Ca abundance indicated that Ca2+ availability was an important determinant of the loss of biochar carbon.

Keywords

13C14Cbiochardegradationimmobilizationrespiration
Type
Research Article
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 61 , Issue 2 , April 2019 , pp. 573 - 586
Copyright
© 2018 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Alon, D, Mintz, G, Cohen, I, Weiner, S, Boaretto, E. 2002. The use of Raman spectroscopy to monitor the removal of humic substances from charcoal: quality control for 14C dating of charcoal. Radiocarbon 44(1):1–11.Google Scholar
Bird, MI, Ayliffe, LK, Fifield, K, Cresswell, R, Turney, C. 1999. Radiocarbon dating of “old” charcoal using a wet oxidation – stepped combustion procedure. Radiocarbon 41(2):127–140.Google Scholar
Bird, MI, Wurster, CW, de Paula Silva, PH, Bass, A, de Nys, R. 2011. Algal biochar production and properties. Bioresource Technology 102:1886–1891.Google Scholar
Bird, MI, Levchenko, V, Ascough, PL, Meredith, W, Wurster, CM, Williams, A, Tilston, EL, Snape, CE, Apperley, DC. 2014. The efficiency of charcoal decontamination for radiocarbon dating by three pre-treatments–ABOX, ABA and hypy. Quaternary Geochronology 22:25–32.Google Scholar
Bird, MI, Wynn, JG, Saiz, G, Wurster, CM, McBeath, A. 2015. The pyrogenic carbon cycle. Annual Reviews of Earth Planetary Sciences 43:273–298.Google Scholar
Bird, MI, McBeath, AV, Ascough, PL, Levchenko, VA, Wurster, CM, Munksgaard, NC, Smernik, RJ, Williams, A. 2017. Loss and gain of carbon during char degradation. Soil Biology & Biochemistry 106:80–89.Google Scholar
Braadbaart, F, Poole, I, Van Brussel, AA. 2009. Preservation potential of charcoal in alkaline environments: an experimental approach and implications for the archaeological record. Journal of Archaeological Science 368:1672–1679.Google Scholar
Fang, Y, Singh, B, Singh, BP, Krull, E. 2014. Biochar carbon stability in four contrasting soils. European Journal of Soil Science 65:60–71.Google Scholar
Fink, D, Hotchkis, M, Hua, Q, Jacobsen, G, Smith, AM, Zoppi, U, Child, D, Mifsud, C, van der Gaast, H, Williams, A, Williams, M. 2004. The ANTARES AMS facility at ANSTO. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 224:109–115. DOI:10.1016/j.nimb.2004.04.025.Google Scholar
Forbes, MS, Raison, RJ, Skjemstad, JO. 2006. Formation, transformation and transport of black carbon (charcoal) in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Science of the Total Environment 370:190–206.Google Scholar
Hammes, K, Torn, MS, Lapenas, AG, Schmid, MWI. 2008. Centennial black carbon turnover observed in a Russian steppe soil. Biogeosciences 5:1339–1350.Google Scholar
Hockaday, WC, Grannas, AM, Kim, S, Hatcher, PG. 2007. The transformation and mobility of charcoal in a fire-impacted watershed. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 71:3432–3445.Google Scholar
Hua, Q, Jacobsen, GE, Zoppi, U, Lawson, EM, Williams, AA, Smith, AM, McCann, MJ. 2001. Progress in radiocarbon target preparation at the ANTARES AMS centre. Radiocarbon 43(2A):275–282.Google Scholar
Huisman, DJ, Braadbaart, F, van Wijk, IM, van Os, BJH. 2012. Ashes to ashes, charcoal to dust:micromorphological evidence for ash–induced disintegration of charcoal in Early Neolithic LBK soil features in Elsloo, The Netherlands. Journal of Archaeological Science 394:994–1004.Google Scholar
Kanaly, RA, Harayama, S. 2000. Biodegradation of high-molecular-weight polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons by bacteria. Journal of Bacteriology 182:2059–2067.Google Scholar
Kuzyakov, Y, Bogomolova, I, Glaser, B. 2014. Biochar stability in soil: Decomposition during eight years and transformation as assessed by compound-specific 14C analysis. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 70:229–236.Google Scholar
McBeath, AV, Wurster, CM, Bird, MI. 2015. Influence of feedstock properties and pyrolysis conditions on biochar carbon stability as determined by hydrogen pyrolysis. Biomass and Bioenergy 73:155–173.Google Scholar
Oades, JM. 1988. The retention of organic matter in soils. Biogeochemistry 5(1):35–70.Google Scholar
Pietikäinen, J, Kiikkilä, O, Fritze, H. 2000. Charcoal as a habitat for microbes and its effect on the microbial community of the underlying humus. Oikos 89:231–242.Google Scholar
Preston, CM, Schmidt, MWI. 2006. Black pyrogenic carbon: a synthesis of current knowledge and uncertainties with special consideration of boreal regions. Biogeosciences 34:397e420.Google Scholar
Rebollo, NR, Cohen-Ofri, I, Popovitz-Biro, R, Bar-Yosef, O, Meignen, L, Goldberg, P, Boaretto, E. 2008. Structural characterization of charcoal exposed to high and low pH: implications for 14C sample preparation and charcoal preservation. Radiocarbon 50(2):289–307.Google Scholar
Šantrůčková, H, Bird, MI, Lloyd, J. 2000. Microbial processes and carbon‐isotope fractionation in tropical and temperate grassland soils. Functional Ecology 14(1):108–114.Google Scholar
Singh, BP, Cowie, AL, Smernik, RJ. 2012. Biochar carbon stability in a clayey soil as a function of feedstock and pyrolysis temperature. Environmental Science and Technology 46:11770−11778.Google Scholar
Tilston EL, Ascough PL, Garnett MH, Bird MI. 2016. Quantitative charcoal degradation and negative priming of soil organic matter witha 14C dead tracer. Radiocarbon 58:905−919. Google Scholar
Varcoe, J, van Leeuwen, JA, Chittleborough, DJ, Cox, JW, Smernik, RJ, Heitz, A. 2010. Changes in water quality following gypsum application to catchment soils of the Mount Lofty Ranges, South Australia. Organic Geochemistry 41(2):116–123.Google Scholar
Wang, J, Xiong, Z, Kuzyakov, Y. 2016. Biochar stability in soil: meta-analysis of decomposition and priming effects. Global Change Biology Bioenergy 8:512–523.Google Scholar
Whittinghill, KA, Hobbie, SE 2012. Effects of pH and calcium on soil organic matter dynamics in Alaskan tundra. Biogeochemistry 111(1–3):569–581.Google Scholar
Woolf, D, Amonette, JE, Street-Perrott, FA, Lehmann, J, Joseph, S. 2010. Sustainable biochar to mitigate global climate change. Nature Communications 1:56. doi:10.1038/ncomms1053.Google Scholar
Zimmerman, AR. 2010. Abiotic and microbial oxidation of laboratory-produced black carbon biochar. Environmental Science and Technology 444:1295–1301.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Munksgaard et al. supplementary material

Munksgaard et al. supplementary material 1

Download Munksgaard et al. supplementary material(File)
File 14.2 KB
Supplementary material: File

Munksgaard et al. supplementary material

Munksgaard et al. supplementary material 2

Download Munksgaard et al. supplementary material(File)
File 48.8 KB
Supplementary material: File

Munksgaard et al. supplementary material

Munksgaard et al. supplementary material 3

Download Munksgaard et al. supplementary material(File)
File 19.2 KB
Supplementary material: File

Munksgaard et al. supplementary material

Munksgaard et al. supplementary material 4

Download Munksgaard et al. supplementary material(File)
File 14.3 KB