Effect of carbon-enriched digestate on the microbial soil activity

Jiri Holatko, Tereza Hammerschmiedt, Antonin Kintl, Subhan Danish, Petr Skarpa, Oldrich Latal, Tivadar Baltazar, Shah Fahad, Hanife Akça, Suleyman Taban, Eliska Kobzova, Rahul Datta, Ondrej Malicek, Ghulam Sabir Hussain and Martin Brtnicky

PLOS ONE, 2021, vol. 16, issue 7, 1-13

Abstract: Objectives: As 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. Methods: Soil 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. Results: Soil 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. Conclusions: The 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.

Date: 2021
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0252262

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0252262

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