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Efficiency of biochar, nitrogen addition and microbial agent amendments in remediation of soil properties and microbial community in mine soils
  • +2
  • Junqia Kong,
  • Zhibin He,
  • Chen Longfei,
  • Rong Yang,
  • Jun Du
Junqia Kong
Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Zhibin He
Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources
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Chen Longfei
Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources
Author Profile
Rong Yang
Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources
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Jun Du
Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources
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Abstract

Lacking of systematic evaluations in soil quality and microbial community recovery after different amendments addition limits optimization of amendments combination in coal mine-soils. We performed a short-term incubation experiment over 12 weeks to assess the effects of three amendments (biochar: C; nitrogen fertilizer at three levels: N-N1~N3; microbial agent at two levels: M-M1~M2) based on C/N ratio (regulated by biochar and N level: 35:1, 25:1, 12.5:1) on soil quality and microbial community in the Qilian Mountains, China. Over the incubation period, soil pH and MBC/MBN were significantly lower than unamended treatment in N addition and C+M+N treatments, respectively. Soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN), available nitrogen (AN), available phosphorus (AP), available potassium (AK), microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and microbial biomass nitrogen (MBN) contents had a significant increase in all amended treatments (P<0.001). Higher AP, AK, MBC, MBN and lower MBC/MBN were observed in N2-treated soil(corresponding to C/N ratio of 25:1). Meanwhile, N2-treated soil significantly increased species richness and diversity of soil bacterial community (P<0.05). Principal coordinate analysis further showed that soil bacterial community compositions were significantly separated by N level. C-M-N treatments (especially at N2 and N1 levels) significantly increased the relative abundance (>1%) of the bacterial phyla Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes, and decreased the relative abundance of fungal phyla Chytridiomycota (P<0.05). Redundancy analysis illustrated the importance of soil nutrients in explaining variability in bacteria community composition (74.73%) than fungal (35.0%). Our results indicated that N and M addition based on biochar can improve soil quality by neutralizing soil pH and increasing soil nutrient contents, and the appropriate C/N ratio (25:1: biochar+N2-treated soil) can better promote mass, richness and diversity of soil bacterial community. Our study provided a new insight for achieving restoration of damaged habitats by changing microbial structure, diversity and mass by regulating C/N ratio of amendments
14 Mar 2021Submitted to Ecology and Evolution
15 Mar 2021Submission Checks Completed
15 Mar 2021Assigned to Editor
15 Mar 2021Reviewer(s) Assigned
24 Mar 2021Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
25 Mar 2021Editorial Decision: Revise Minor
20 Apr 20211st Revision Received
20 Apr 2021Assigned to Editor
20 Apr 2021Submission Checks Completed
20 Apr 2021Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
21 Apr 2021Editorial Decision: Revise Minor
05 May 20212nd Revision Received
06 May 2021Assigned to Editor
06 May 2021Submission Checks Completed
06 May 2021Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
07 May 2021Editorial Decision: Accept