Abstract
Geochemical and biological processes that operate in the soil matrix and on the soil surface are important to the degradation of biosolids in soil. Due to the large surface area of soils it is assumed that the microbial ecology is associated with mineral soil surface area. The total mineral surface areas were determined for soils from eight different fields selected from a long term study (1972–2006) of annual biosolids application to 41 fields in central Illinois varying in size from 3.6 to 66 ha. The surface areas for the soils varied from 1 to 9 m2/g of soil. The biological degradation rates for the eight soils were determined using a biological degradation rate model (DRM) and varied from 0.02 to 0.20/year−1. Regression analysis revealed that the degradation rate was positively associated with mineral soil surface area (1 m2/g produces 0.018 year−1 increase in the degradation rate). The annual soil sequestration rate was calculated to increase from 1% to 6% when the soil total surface area increased from 1 to 9 m2/g of soil. Therefore, land application of biosolids is an effective way to enhance carbon sequestration in soils and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Highlights
The ability for soils to biologically degrade biosolids and sequester carbon (C) is recognized as one method to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions [1,2]
The objective of this paper is to examine the effect of mineral soil surface area on the biosolids degradation rate and C sequestration rate
Regression analysis indicates that there is an association between total mineral soil surface area and biosolids degradation rate
Summary
The ability for soils to biologically degrade biosolids and sequester carbon (C) is recognized as one method to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions [1,2]. Due to the large surface area of soils, biological processes that operate on the soil surface are potentially important to the degradation rate of biosolids in soil. In this study the relationship between the mineral soil surface area and the degradation rate of biosolids added to soil is evaluated to provide a better understanding of the important variables that control sequestration and lead to application of technologies based on their ability to increase the rate of sequestration. Jarecki and Lal [3] suggested that application of biosolids is an important management practice to increase soil C sequestration in agricultural soils. Net C sequestration rates from biosolids applied to soil have been reported to be between 1 to 3 Mg ha1 ̈year with biosolids application rate between 56 to 71 Mg ha1 ̈year1 [4]
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