nitrogen retention and plant uptake on a highly weathered ... · nitrogen retention and plant...

Christoph Steiner, Bruno Glaser, Wenceslau G. Teixeira, Johannes Lehmann, Winfried E. H. Blum and Wolfgang Zech

Austrian Academy of ScienceUniversity of Bayreuth

Nitrogen Retention and Plant Uptake on a highly weathered central Amazonian Ferralsol amended with Compost and Charcoal

EUROSOIL 200825 – 29 AugustVienna, Austria

• Infertile Soils

•Low CEC

• leaching of mineral fertilizer

• Low soil organic matter contents

→ maximum 3 harvests

→ new burning

Amazonia Ferralsol

Terra PretaFerralsol

Terra Preta de Indio

B. Glaser

Cash crop farming

Irrigated horticulture lawn production

Terra Preta fertility

C. Steiner, UN climate change conference 2007; Bali – Indonesia, www.biochar.org

Terra Preta charcoal

Terra Preta fertility

Terra Preta research (Glaser et al. 2000)

Terra Preta: CEC = 4,6636 OC - 13,931R2 = 0,8286 ***

Ferralsol: CEC = 0,2166 OC + 4,579R2 = 0,1993 **

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

0 50 100 150OC [g kg-1]

CEC

eff

[mm

olc

kg-1

]

Days after fertilization0 10 20 30 40Am

mon

ium

cum

ulat

ive

leac

hing

[kg

ha-1

]

0

20

40

60

80

100

FerralsolFerralsol + fertilizerFerralsol + charcoalFerralsol + charcoal + fertilizerAnthrosolAnthrosol + fertilizer

LSD0.05

Terra Preta & Charcoal research (Lehmann et al. 2003)Reduced Ammonium leaching

~50% of C remains as charcoal

Amazonia Slash and Char as Alternative to Slash and Burn

~2% of C remains as charcoalPhoto: Steve Welch

C. Steiner, UN climate change conference 2007; Bali – Indonesia, www.biochar.org

Biochar Research Terra Preta Nova

http://daac.gsfc.nasa.gov/

Experimental station of EMPRAPA Amazonia Ocidental

Ca. 30km north of Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil (3°8´S, 59°52´W; 40-50 m a.s.l.)

Humid tropical climate- 2500mm rainfall yr-1

- mean temperature 26°C

- mean humidity 84%

Research location

FAO: Xanthic Ferralsol

Terra Preta Ferralsol

Clay ~75%N g kg-1 < 2pH 6.3 3.7CEC [cmolc kg-1] 44 < 2P [g kg-1] 2 0.004Ca [g kg-1] 7.8 0.01C [g kg-1] 92 20-25

Zech et al. (1990)

Research soil characteristics (0-0.1m)

Organic Matterials in February 2001:The amount of OM was calculated after the C content and was approximately the charcoal yield of a 10-12 year old secondary forest (Uhl+Jordan 1984, Sanford 1985, Buschbacher 1988, Hölscher 1995)

• Increase Corg by 25% in 0-0.1 m

– Applied OM: Charcoal 11 t / haCompost 67 t /ha

First Mineral Fertilization (MF) in March 2001 : N (30), P (35), K (50), lime (2100)

Research setup

NPK fertilizer & charcoal NPK fertilizer without charcoal

Plants after 55 days

Research results, second harvest sorghum

Research results, cumulative yield

Steiner et al. (2008), Plant and Soil, n=5, means and SE

Second fertilization 15N

• Second Fertilization:April 2002 N (55 kg ha-1), P (40), K (50), lime (430)

• 15N isotope enrichment

• 15N labelled (NH4)2SO4 , 10 atom % 15N excess.

• Mixed in a ratio 1:1 with conventional (NH4)2SO4

Research tracer application

1 Control2 Litter3 Burned litter

4 Mineral fertilizer (MF)5 Chicken manure

6 Compost (CO)7 Charcoal powder

8 CO + MF9 Charcoal powder (CC) + MF10 ½ Charcoal powder + ½ OS

11 ½ Charcoal powder + ½ CO + MF12 Charcoal powder 25% + OS 12,5%

13 Charcoal powder + ½ CO + MF14&15 Charcoal pieces 25% + OS 12,5%

Research setup

Research results, total carbon

Steiner et al. (2008), J Plant Nutr Soil Sci, n=5, means and SE

Research results, total nitrogen

Steiner et al. (2008), J Plant Nutr Soil Sci, n=5, means and SE

Research results, C/N ratio

Steiner et al. (2008), J Plant Nutr Soil Sci, n=5, means and SE

Research results, increased N recovery

Steiner et al. (2008), J Plant Nutr Soil Sci, n=5, means and SE

Research results, increased N recovery15

N R

ecov

ery

%

MF

+CO

+CC+½CO + ½CC

+½CO+CC

CO= CompostCC= Charcoal

Sieving

Charcoal Use in Agriculture (Biochar)

C. Steiner, UN climate change conference 2007; Bali – Indonesia, www.biochar.org

Carbon negative EnergyBio-energy with charcoal carbon capture and storage (BECCCS)

www.biopact.com

Clean and efficient cooking biomass

Robert Flanagan, SAFFE

C. Steiner, UN climate change conference 2007; Bali – Indonesia, www.biochar.org

Corn cobs biomass/biochar

C. Steiner, UN climate change conference 2007; Bali – Indonesia, www.biochar.org

Robert Flanagan, SAFFE

200 Mg per day

60-75% BioOil

15 – 20% Charcoal

10-20% Non-condensable gases

Dynamotive fast pyrolysis

3R Agrocarbon European Zero Emission Carbonization Plant - EU FP6 RTD programme

Field demonstration plant in Hungary, Full scale is of 30,000 m3/yr throughput design

UGA Biorefining and Carbon Cycling Program

www.biorefinery.uga.eduwww.biochar.org