Sewage sludge application stimulated soil N2O emissions with a low heavy metal pollution risk in Eucalyptus plantations

Abstract

Sewage sludge (SS) has been extensively used as an alternative fertilizer in forest plantations, which are beneficial in supplying timbers and mitigating climate change. However, whether the extra nitrogen (N) applied by SS would enhance the soil nitrous oxide (N2O) emission, an important greenhouse gas, in forest plantations have not been well understood. The objective of this study is to evaluate the ecological effects of SS application on soils, by investigating the soil N2O emission and the toxicity of the potentially toxic elements (PTEs) in soil. A field fertilization experiment was conducted in Eucalyptus plantations with four fertilization rates (0 kg m−2, 1.5 kg m−2, 3.0 kg m−2, and 4.5 kg m−2). The soil N2O emissions were monitored at a soil depth of 0–10 cm using static chamber method, soil chemical properties, and PTEs were determined at soil depths of 0–10 cm, 10–20 cm, and 20–40 cm. The average soil N2O emission rate was 8.1 μg N2O–N h−1 m−2 in plots without SS application (control). The application of SS significantly increased the soil N2O emissions by 7–10 times as to control. The increased N2O emissions were positively related to the soil total phosphorus and nitrogen and negatively correlated with copper and zinc, which increased with the SS application. However, the potential ecological risk index (Ei) and the comprehensive potential ecological risk index (RI) of PTEs were lower than 40 and 150 respectively, which indicating a low toxicity of PTEs to soil health. After seven months of SS application, the priming effects of SS on soil N2O emissions gradually diminished. These findings suggest that the application of SS may increase N2O emissions at the initial stages of application (<7 months) and may have a low PTEs pollution risk, even at a high SS addition rate (4.5 kg m−2).