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Remediation of an acidic mine spoil: Miscanthus biochar and lime amendment affects metal availability, plant growth, and soil enzyme activity.

ABSTRACT: Biochar may be a tool for mine spoil remediation; however, its mechanisms for achieving this goal remain unclear. In this study, Miscanthus (Miscanthus giganteus) biochar was evaluated for its ability to reclaim acidic mine spoils (pH?2 and Mehlich 3 (M3) to determine extractable Al, Cu, and Zn concentrations. Additionally, microbial activity was measured using a fluorescent ?-glucosidase and N-acetyl-?-d-glucosaminidase assay. Spoil treated with lime and biochar had significantly greater pH and EC values. Significantly greater ?-glucosidase activity occurred only in the 5% biochar plus lime treatment, while N-acetyl-?-d-glucosaminidase activities were not altered. Metal concentrations in rye shoot and roots were mixed. Lime additions significantly reduced extractable metal concentrations. Increasing biochar rates alone significantly reduced leachate DOC concentrations, and subsequently reduced leachable metal concentrations. Surprisingly, miscanthus biochar, by itself, was limited at mitigation, but when combined with lime, the combination was capable of further reducing extractable metal concentrations and improving ?-glucosidase enzyme activity.

SUBMITTER: Novak JM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7904245 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Remediation of an acidic mine spoil: Miscanthus biochar and lime amendment affects metal availability, plant growth, and soil enzyme activity.

Novak Jeffrey M JM Ippolito James A JA Ducey Thomas F TF Watts Donald W DW Spokas Kurt A KA Trippe Kristin M KM Sigua Gilbert C GC Johnson Mark G MG

Chemosphere 20180421

Biochar may be a tool for mine spoil remediation; however, its mechanisms for achieving this goal remain unclear. In this study, Miscanthus (Miscanthus giganteus) biochar was evaluated for its ability to reclaim acidic mine spoils (pH < 3) through reducing metal availability, improving soil microbial enzymatic activity, and initial growth of grass seedlings. Biochar was applied at 0, 1, 2.5 and 5% (w/w) along with lime/no lime and fertilizer additions. Blue Wildrye (Elymus glaucus cv. 'Elkton') ...[more]

PMID: 29729625

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Project description:Lacking 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 with a varying temperature 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 mine soil properties 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 nitrogen (MBN) contents increased significantly in all amended treatments (p < .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 < .05). Principal coordinate analysis further showed that soil bacterial community compositions were significantly separated by N level. C-M-N treatments significantly increased the relative abundance (>1%) of the bacterial phyla Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes, and decreased the relative abundance of fungal phyla Chytridiomycota (p < .05). Redundancy analysis illustrated the importance of soil nutrients in explaining variability in bacterial community composition (74.73%) than fungal composition (35.0%). Our results indicated that N addition based on biochar and M can improve soil quality by neutralizing soil pH and increasing soil nutrient contents in short-term, and the appropriate C/N ratio (25:1) can better promote microbial 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.

Dataset Information

Remediation of an acidic mine spoil: Miscanthus biochar and lime amendment affects metal availability, plant growth, and soil enzyme activity.

Publications

Remediation of an acidic mine spoil: Miscanthus biochar and lime amendment affects metal availability, plant growth, and soil enzyme activity.

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