Greater mineral and aggregate protection for organic carbon in the soil amended by weathered coal than by biochar: Based on a 3-year field experiment

作者：Xiaoyuan Zhang, Jiyong Zheng, Ke Wang, Xiaolin Wang, Zitong Zhang, Xiaomeng Xie, Jinjun Cai · 发表于：Geoderma · 年份：2023 · DOI：10.1016/j.geoderma.2023.116639 · 被引用次数：30 · 研究领域：Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics、Coal and Its By-products、Peatlands and Wetlands Ecology

Soil carbon pool stability plays an important role in reaching carbon neutrality and mitigating global warming. Applying soil amendments is a practical strategy in agricultural production to improve soil environment. Weathered coal (WC) is an organic amendment that can be used to improve soil quality. However, the effects of WC application on soil organic carbon pool stability, and its differences from the effects of biochar (BC, a common amendment) application remains unclear. In this study, BC was selected as a comparison to further evaluate the potential of WC based on a 3-year field experiment, in which WC and BC were individually applied into a loamy clay soil at 0%, 1%, and 3% (w/w) rates. Soil organic carbon and its fractions (including particulate organic carbon and mineral-bound organic carbon), soil aggregate fractions and its stability, and the organic carbon content in aggregates were examined. The results showed that both WC and BC significantly increased soil total organic carbon, particulate and mineral-bound organic carbon (P < 0.05). The mineral-bound organic carbon content in WC treatment was significantly higher than that in BC treatment (by 32% under the 3% rate) (P < 0.05), whereas, there were no significant differences in soil total organic carbon content. Both WC and BC increased the soil organic carbon content in all aggregate fractions. While only the WC improved the soil aggregate stability, and which was 15% (under 1% rate) and 28% (under 3% rate) h...