Janice Thies and Hongyan Jin - biochar-international...Microbial community composition in Brazilian anthrosols and adjacent soils characterized using culturing and molecular identification

Janice Thies and Hongyan Jin

Johannes Lehmann, Julie Grossman, Brendan O’Neill, Biqing Liang

Crop and Soil SciencesCornell University

International Symposium on Environmental Behavior and Effects of Biomass-Derived Charcoal

Hangzhou, China

10/9/20101Thies and Jin, 2010

Terra preta• Soil microbial dynamics

Biochar-amended temperate soil• Cautionary notes

• Soil and rhizosphere microbial dynamics

C conserving pathways

2Thies and Jin, 2010

Photo Thies © 2003

Johannes Lehmann

3

‘Bitten’ by the biochar ‘bug’

Hatahara

Açutuba

Lago Grande

Dona Stella

2003

Hatahara

Embrapa, 2001

1st International Biochar Conference

Manaus, Brazil, 2001

Thies and Jin, 2010

Higher bacterial abundance, diversity and actinomyceterecovery

O'Neill, B., Grossman, J., Tsai, M. T., Gomes, J. E., Lehmann, J., Petersen, J., Neves, E., Thies, J. E. 2009. Microbial community composition in Brazilian anthrosols and adjacent soils characterized using culturing and molecular identification. Microbial Ecology, 58 (1), 25-35.

Significant changes in bacterial and archael diversityGrossman, J, O’Neill, B, Tsai, SM, Liang, B, Neves, E; Lehmann, J, Thies, J.E. 2010. Amazonian anthrosols support similar microbial communities that differ distinctly from those extant in adjacent, unmodified soils of the same mineralogy. Microbial Ecology 60: 192-205.

Significantly lower respiration • both basal and after addition of sugarcane residue

Stabilization of labile C by black CLiang, B, Lehmann, J, Sohi, SP, Thies, JE, O’Neill, B, Trujillo, L, Gaunt, J,

Solomon, D, Grossman, J, Neves, EG, Luizão, FJ. 2010. Black carbon affects the cycling of non-black carbon in soil. Organic Geochemistry41: 206-213.


Cumulative carbon mineralization of soils with high and low BC and with and without additions of

sugar cane during a 10-month incubation (means and standard errors, n=4). Liang et al. (2009)

With

Sugarcane

Without

Sugarcane

Time (days)

0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350

C m

inera

lization [m

g C

O2-C

g-1

C]

0

200

400

600

800 TP (BC) Hatahara

OX Hatahara

TP (BC) Acutuba

OX Acutuba

TP (BC) Dona Stella

OX Dona Stella


Field Design

Cornell Musgrave Farm, Aurora, NY, 2007

Corn stover biochar incorporated into soil at

0, 1, 12, 30 t biochar ha-1

Corn planting density = 32,000 seeds acre-1

NH4NO3 applied at 0.13 t ha-1 to each plot

Bulk & rhizosphere soils sampled midsummer

2007 & 2008

Best Energies corn stover biochar:

slow pyrolysis at 600°C

Honeoye silt loam8

Lehmann et al.


Biochar Amended Soil

Field samples Biochar particles

Microbial biomass

Microbial respiration

DNA extraction

Bacterial 16S rRNA PCR

Fungi ITS PCR

T-RFLP Fingerprinting

Microbial community compositionFungi colonizing

biochar surfaces

Microbial

abundance

Microbial activity

Exoenzyme

activity

Clone

library

Exoenzyme dynamics

Exoenzyme

Localization

Sequencing

Adsorption !

?


51%

34%

8

Equilibrium isotherms for each rate, fitted to the Freundlich

equation and used to adjust microbial biomass estimatesThies and Jin, 2010


Bulk

Rhizosphere



Possible mechanisms underlying observed

reductions in soil respiration & metabolic quotient

• Changes in substrate quality ( )and/or quantity ( )

• Changes in the composition of the biotic community

(e.g., increased fungal/bacterial ratio [15:1, 5:1, C:N]

• Changes in the diversity of the microbial community

• Co-location of substrates, microbes, exoenzymes that

increase C use efficiency of the community

• Reduced C mineralizing enzyme function

• Carbon recycling within microbial biofilms

• Increased activity of autotrophs, particularly nitrifiers

• Participation in the carbonate cycle12

Thies and Jin, 2010

B. Hha1 - Fungi


Bulk

Rhizosphere

[12 & 30 t ha-1]

[0 and 1 t ha-1]


2007 vs. 2008



Possible mechanisms underlying observed

reductions in soil respiration & metabolic quotient

• Changes in substrate quality ( )and/or quantity ( )

• Changes in the composition of the biotic community

(i.e., increased fungal/bacterial ratio [15:1, 5:1, C:N]


• Co-location of substrates, microbes, exoenzymes that

increase C use efficiency of the community

• Reduced C mineralizing enzyme function




Thies and Jin, 2010

β-D-glucuronidase activity Phosphatase activity


54%

32%


20

Alkaline phosphatase activity was very high in biochar amended soils

β -D glucosidase activity was much lower in biochar amended soils

Thies and Jin, 2010

21

L-Leucine aminopeptidase activity was higher in biochar amended soils

β –D cellobiase activity was much lower in biochar amended soils

Thies and Jin, 2010

Alkaline

phosphatase

Biochar amended

3 hr 4 hr

β – D

glucuronidase

Phosphatase

Unamended

4 hr


β-D-glucuronidase activity Phosphatase activity


Inorganic nutrients

Microbes

Organic matter

Exoenzymes


Possible mechanisms underlying observed reductions in soil respiration & metabolic quotient• Changes in substrate quality ( )and/or quantity ( )

• Changes in the composition of the biotic community (i.e., increased fungal/bacterial ratio [15:1, 5:1, C:N]


• Co-location of substrates, microbes, and their exoenzymes resulting in increased C use efficiency


• Reduced efficiency of (or need for) some C mineralizing enzymes – methodological artifact?



Thies and Jin, 2010

Possible mechanisms underlying observed reductions in soil respiration & metabolic quotient• Changes in substrate quality ( )and/or quantity ( )

• Changes in the composition of the biotic community (i.e., increased fungal/bacterial ratio [15:1, 5:1, C:N]


• Co-location of substrates, microbes, and their exoenzymes resulting in increased C use efficiency


• Reduced efficiency of (or need for) some C mineralizing enzymes – methodological artifact?



Thies and Jin, 2010

NH4+ + 1.5O2 NO2

- + 2H++ H2O

• Nitroso- 65 kcal/mole 6e-

NO2- + H2O NO3

- + 2H+

• Nitro- 17-18 kcal/mole 2e-

H+ used to generates reducing potential needed to fix CO2 into carbohydrates.


CO2 + H2O ⇌ H2CO3 ⇌ H+ + HCO3− ⇌ H+ + CO3

2−

carbonic acid bicarbonate carbonate

Weathering of calcium silicates

• CaSiO3 Ca2+ + SiO2 + O

Formation of calcium carbonate

• Ca2+ + HCO3− CaCO3 + H+


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Janice Thies and Hongyan Jin - biochar-international...Microbial community composition in Brazilian anthrosols and adjacent soils characterized using culturing and molecular identification