Migration of dissolved organic carbon in biochars and biochar-mineral complexes

The objective of this work was to determine the contribution of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) from a biochar mineral complex (BMC), so as to better understand the interactions between DOC, biochar, clay, and minerals during thermal treatment, and the effects of BMC on amended soils. The BMC was prepared by heating a mixture of a H3PO4-treated saligna biochar from Acacia saligna, clays, other minerals, and chicken manure. The BMC was applied to a sandy loam soil in Western Australia, where wheat was grown. Liquid chromatography-organic carbon detection (LC-OCD) tests were carried out on water extracts from the untreated biochar, the BMC, the BMC-amended soil, and on a control soil to measure the DOC concentration. LC-OCD tests provide a fingerprint of the DOC, which allows the fractions of DOC to be determined. Thermal processing enhanced the reaction of the A. saligna biochar with manure, clays and minerals, and affected the distribution of the DOC fractions. Notably, the process leads to immobilization of hydrophobic DOC and to an increase in the concentration of low-molecular-weight neutrals in the BMC. The application of the BMC to soil increases the DOC in the amended soil, especially the biopolymer fraction.

Effects of Pig Slurry Application and Crops on Phosphorus Content in Soil and the Chemical Species in Solution

The application of pig slurry rates and plant cultivation can modify the soil phosphorus (P) content and distribution of chemical species in solution. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the total P, available P and P in solution, and the distribution of chemical P species in solution, in a soil under longstanding pig slurry applications and crop cultivation. The study was carried out in soil columns with undisturbed structure, collected in an experiment conducted for eight years in the experimental unit of the Universidade Federal de Santa Maria (UFSM), Santa Maria (RS). The soil was an Argissolo Vermelho distrófico arênico (Typic Hapludalf), subjected to applications of 0, 20, 40, and 80 m3 ha-1 pig slurry. Soil samples were collected from the layers 0-5, 5-10, 10-20, 20-30, 30-40, and 40-60 cm, before and after black oat and maize grown in a greenhouse, for the determination of available P, total P and P in the soil solution. In the solution, the concentration of the major cations, anions, dissolved organic carbon (DOC), and pH were determined. The distribution of chemical P species was determined by software Visual Minteq. The 21 pig slurry applications increased the total P content in the soil to a depth of 40 cm, and the P extracted by Mehlich-1 and from the solution to a depth of 30 cm. Successive applications of pig slurry changed the balance between the solid and liquid phases in the surface soil layers, increasing the proportion of the total amount of P present in the soil solution, aside from changing the chemical species in the solution, reducing the percentage complexed with Al and increasing the one complexed with Ca and Mg in the layers 0-5 and 5-10 cm. Black oat and maize cultivation increased pH in the solution, thereby increasing the proportion of HPO42- and reducing H2PO4- species.

Distribuição de metais e caracterização das constantes de troca entre espécies metálicas e frações húmicas aquáticas de diferentes tamanhos moleculares

In this work the metal distribution and exchange constants between metal species and aquatic humic fractions with different molecular sizes were studied. The aquatic humic substances (AHS) were extracted by XAD-8 resin from water sample collected from Itapitanguí river, São Paulo State, Brazil. The AHS were fractionated in six fractions with different molecular sizes (>100 - <5 kDa) and characterized by several techniques. Molar ratios H/C suggested higher aromaticity for fractions F1 and F6 whereas molar ratios C/N didn´t show any differences regarding the humification degree between the fractions. The UV-Vis absorbance a254/a436 ratio showed higher results for F4 and F5, probably by less condensed features. FTIR studies showed high similarity in the functional groups in the fractions. The highest percentage of traces of Co, Al, Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn and Ni (determined by ICP-AES) was preferably complexed by fractions F3 and F4 with a greater amount of dissolved organic carbon (DOC). In addition, the exchange constants, determined by ultrafiltration method, showed complexes AHS-Fe and AHS-Al with higher stability than complexes AHS-Co in all fractions.