Effects of Bioavailability and Microbial Community on the Degradation of Atrazine in Sewage Sludge Biochar-Amended Soils

Siying Li, Xin Li (), Yunyang Li and Yue Zhao ()
Additional contact information
Siying Li: National Engineering Research Center for Safe Disposal and Resources Recovery of Sludge, Harbin 150090, China
Xin Li: National Engineering Research Center for Safe Disposal and Resources Recovery of Sludge, Harbin 150090, China
Yunyang Li: National Engineering Research Center for Safe Disposal and Resources Recovery of Sludge, Harbin 150090, China
Yue Zhao: National Engineering Research Center for Safe Disposal and Resources Recovery of Sludge, Harbin 150090, China

Energies, 2025, vol. 18, issue 12, 1-17

Abstract: Biochar, as an emerging biotechnology, has been widely used in the remediation of soil organic pollution, mainly by promoting the abundance of related degrading bacteria in soil. In this study, we explored the influence of sewage sludge biochars pyrolyzed at different temperatures of 300–700 °C (SSB 300 -SSB 700 ) and addition rates (1% and 5%) on the atrazine biodegradation in soils. After a 21-day incubation, the application of 5% SSB 300 significantly increased soil catalase (CAT), urease activity, dissolved organic carbon (DOC), and electrical conductivity (EC). However, biochar amendment exhibited inhibitory effects on atrazine degradation in soils. The atrazine degradation ratio decreased with decreasing pyrolysis temperature and increasing addition rates. Further analysis found that there were two possible reasons for the significant decline of atrazine biodegradation in SSB 300 groups: (1) SSB 300 demonstrated higher adsorption capacity for atrazine compared to SSB 500 and SSB 700 and reduced atrazine bioavailability due to its stronger hydrophobic nature and more abundant surface functional groups; and (2) the SSB 300 significantly decreased the abundances of dominant atrazine-degraders ( Arthrobacter and Pseudomonas ) and atrazine-degrading genes ( atz A, atz B, and trz N).

Keywords: atrazine; biochar; bioavailability; microbial community; biodegradation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/12/3158/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/12/3158/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:18:y:2025:i:12:p:3158-:d:1680075

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().