Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Soils Amended with Biochar

Biochar amendment to agricultural soil is regarded as a promising option to mitigate climate change and enhance soil quality. It could sequester more carbon within the soil system and increase plant yield by changing soil physicochemical characteristics. However, sustainable use of biochar requires comprehensive environmental assessment. In this sense, it is important to measure additional greenhouse gas emission from soils after biochar addition. We investigated emissions of $CO_2$, $N_2O$, and $CH_4$ from incubated soils collected from rice paddy and cultivated grassland after amendment of 3% biochar (wt.) produced from rice chaff. During incubation, soils were exposed to three wet-dry cycles ranging from 5~85% soil gravimetric water content (WC) to investigate the changes in effect of biochar when influenced by different water levels. The $CO_2$ emission was reduced in biochar treatment compared to the control at WC of 30~70% both in rice paddy and grassland soils. This indicates that biochar could function as a stabilizer for soil organic carbon and it can be effective in carbon sequestration. The $N_2O$ emission was also reduced from the grassland soil treated with biochar when WC was greater than 30% because the biochar treated soils had lower denitrification due to better aeration. In the rice paddy soil, biochar addition resulted in decrease in $N_2O$ emission when WC was greater than 70%, while an increase was noted when WC was between 30~70%. This increase might be related to the fact that available nutrients on biochar surface stimulated existing nitrifying bacterial community, resulting in higher $N_2O$ emission. Overall results imply that biochar amendment to agricultural soil can stabilize soil carbon from fast decomposition although attention should be paid to additional $N_2O$ emission when biochar addition is combined with the application of nitrogen fertilizer.

바이오차르 토양투입에 따른 온실가스 발생 변화 연구