Effects of straw and its biochar applications on the abundance and community structure of CO2-fixing bacteria in a sandy agricultural soil

Abstract

Crop straw and biochar application can potentially increase carbon sequestration and lead to changes in the microbial community in agricultural soils. Sequestration of CO2 by autotrophic microorganisms is key to biogeochemical carbon cycling in soil ecosystems. The effects of straw and its biochar, derived from slow pyrolysis, on CO2 fixation bacteria in sandy soils, remain unclear. Therefore, this study compared the response of abundance and community of CO2 fixation bacteria to the two straw application methods in a sandy agricultural soil. The overall aim of the study was to achieve an efficient use of straw residues for the soil sustainablility. We investigated the soil organic carbon content and autotrophic bacteria over four consecutive years (2014–2018) in a field experiment, including the following four treatments: whole maize straw amendment (S), whole maize straw translated biochar amendment (B), half biochar and half straw amendment (BS), and control (CK) without straw or biochar amendment. The autotrophic bacterial abundance and community structure were measured using molecular methods of real-time PCR, terminal restriction fragment length polymorphisms (T-RFLP), and a clone library targeting the large subunit gene (cbbL) of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase. The results showed that the content of soil total organic carbon (TOC), dissolved organic carbon (DOC), and microbial biomass carbon (MBC) in B, S, and BS treatments was significantly increased compared with the CK treatment. Soil TOC and available potassium (AK) in the B treatment significantly increased by 15.4% and 23.3%, respectively, but soil bulk density, DOC, and MBC significantly decreased by 8.5%, 10.6%, and 14.5%, respectively, compared with the S treatment. The abundance of the cbbL gene as well as of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene increased significantly in straw or biochar application treatments as compared to the CK treatment. The B treatment, but not the BS treatment, significantly increased the cbbL gene abundance when compared to the S treatment. No significant differences were observed in the bacterial 16S rRNA gene abundance among the three straw or biochar applications. The application of straw biochar could increase the diversity of the autotrophic bacteria, which also altered the overall microbial composition. Physicochemical properties of the soil, such as soil pH, SOC, and bulk density, can help explain the shift in soil microbial composition observed in the study. Taken together, our results suggest that straw biochar, rather than straw application, leads to an increase in the abundance and diversity of CO2-fixing bacteria, which would be advantageous for soil autotrophic CO2 fixation.