Biochar has a great potential to ameliorate arable soils, especially those that are low in organic matter due to intensive use or erosion. Biochar is carbonised organic material with high porosity that brings about changes in physical, chemical and biological soil functions. Biochar amended soils show a higher water and cation exchange capacity with reduced leaching and enhanced availability of plant nutrients. The microbial biomass in biochar amended soils is enhanced and more diverse. Biochar is stabilised organic material, which is likely to remain for hundreds of years in the soil. Photosynthetically fixed atmospheric CO2 stabilised in biochar may thus act as a direct carbon sink and help to mitigate climate change. As feedstock and production conditions produce different biochar qualities predictions of effects in soil need to consider biochar and soil properties case by case. To date biochar has been approved to ameliorate highly weathered tropical soils with positive effects on crop growth and yield. Distinct microbial groups were reported to be enhanced in soils but if this depends on the particular soil or biochar or a combination of both is an open question, especially in temperate climates. Likewise, it is not known if microorganisms colonising biochar surfaces are responsible for its mineralization or if they just use the new niches provided. The aim of the proposed project is to investigate the influence of two biochar types on soil-plant systems by determining i) soil nutrient availability, plant growth and nutrient uptake, ii) structure and function of soil microbial communities, iv) the decomposition and fate of biochar in soils. We will use two loessial soils from the well-known DOK-trial with different soil organic matter content. Other soils from the region will be selected to provide a wider range of soil quality, in particular pH. The biochars will be produced by pyrolysis and hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) from the C4-plant Miscanthus gigantea. Pyrolysis derived material has bigger pore sizes due to the evaporating gasses and is commonly alkaline, whereas the HTC derived biochar has a finer pore size, a much higher oxygen content and more acidic functional groups.
In coastal Arctic permafrost regions, thermokarst lagoons represent the transition state from a freshwater lacustrine to a marine environment, and receive little attention regarding their role for greenhouse gas production and release. The geochemical features of a thermokarst lagoon were compared with two thermokarst lakes on the Bykovsky Peninsula in northeastern Siberia. This data set includes pH, major cations and anions, alkalinity, salinity, and dissolved iron (ferric and ferrous) concentrations from porewater of lake and lagoon sediments; the concentration and stable isotopic signature of CH4 in small plug samples from the sediment cores; total carbon (TC), total organic carbon (TOC), total nitrogen (TN), and total sulfur (TS) measured from the bulk sediment; and several biomarker indices (e.g. CPI, Paq) were calculated based on n-alkane concentrations to characterize the origin of organic matter (OM) in the lakes.