Recipient Organization
UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY
(N/A)
LOGAN,UT 84322
Performing Department
Plants Soils & Climate
Non Technical Summary
Drought and nutrient limitations in semiarid soils pose significant challenges to agricultural productivity and sustainability. This project aims to develop an innovative solution by creating designer biochars enriched with animal manures that can improve soil health, fertility, and drought resilience. The research will investigate how co-applying or pre-incubating biochar with manure affects soil nutrient dynamics, particularly phosphorus availability, and how these amendments impact crop growth under different moisture levels. The project will use locally available waste biomass, such as invasive plants and wood waste, to produce cost-effective biochars using a portable kiln. The findings will be shared with farmers, ranchers, and biochar producers through workshops, field days, and online resources to promote the adoption of biochar-manure amendments as a climate-smart soil management strategy. By enhancing soil quality and crop yields in water-scarce regions, this project contributes to sustainable food production, environmental conservation, and climate change resilience in semiarid agroecosystems.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
100%
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
The overarching objective of this project is to elucidate nuances of underlying mechanisms of the nanoscale interaction between biochar and manure for improved nutrient bioavailability and enhancement of crop resilience under drought and irrigated conditions in semiarid soils. We will work towards these goals through the following specific objectives: 1. Produce and characterize biochar using forest wastes and invasive plant species and functionalize it by co-incubating with different weathered animal manures.2. Compare impacts of co-applied (with manure) and pre-incubated biochars on phosphorus chemistry, bioavailability, and dissolved organic matter dynamics in semiarid soil. 3. Assess the effects of pristine and manure-enriched biochar amendments on soil health and plant growth under varying moisture levels ranging from severe drought to optimal irrigation in alkaline soil in a greenhouse experiment.
Project Methods
Objective 1: Biochar will be produced using three different non-chopped woody waster materials, namely, (i) Russian olive (Elaeagnus angustifolia), (ii) loblolly pine (Pinus taeda), and (iii) Tamarisk (Tamarix sp.). Russian olive and Tamarisk are invasive plants found across the American West. The materials will be pretreated using 1 M phosphoric acid for three hours, oven-dried at 150 ?C to ensure proper drying and washed thoroughly with distilled water to lower the pH to 7. After that, the wastes will be converted to biochar using a portable open kiln box with a 3 x 3 sq ft dimension. I will produce the biochar using the portable kiln systems Dr McAvoy developed at Utah State University. Subsequently, four types of manure will be collected: poultry, swine, sheep, and horse manure. The weathered manure will be collected from the Animal Science Farm at Utah State University. The three types of biochar will be incubated with the different weathered manures (1:4, biochar:manure) at 25 ?C for three different periods- 1, 2 or 3 months. The treatments will be replicated four times. The incubation experiment will be carried out in the greenhouse.Project Narrative7The biochar will be characterized pre- and post-incubation. The biochars' elemental analysis, pH, electrical conductivity, and zeta potential will be carried out. The Brunauer-Emmett-Teller specific surface area of the biochars will also be determined.After that, the surface morphology of the biochar pre- and post-incubation with manure will be carried out using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) at the USU Microscopy Core Facility. Representative samples of the incubated biochar will be collected from the experimental setup. The samples will be air-dried to remove excess moisture and then finely ground into a homogenous powder using a mortar and pestle. A small amount of the powdered biochar mixture will be spread evenly onto a double-sided adhesive carbon tape attached to a sample stub. The sample stub will be loaded into the SEM chamber and adequately secured. Images of the sample surface will be captured at various magnifications to visualize the incubated biochar's morphology, structure, and topography. Specific regions of interest that exhibit distinct features, such as biochar particles, manure fragments, and their interface, will be identified from the SEM images. Once the region of interest is selected, EDS analysis will be performed on these regions to determine the elemental composition. The EDS detector detects characteristic X-rays emitted by elements when bombarded with the electron beam. Spectra are generated, displaying peaks corresponding to the elements present in the sample. The acquired spectra will be interpreted to identify the elements on the incubated biochar surface by analyzing the peak intensities and ratios. The quantified nutrient concentrations will be compared to reference standards or control samples for validation and accurate quantification. The data obtained from SEM-EDS analysis will be processed and analyzed using specialized software. Elemental maps, graphs, and charts will be generated to visualize the spatial distribution of nutrients on the biochar surface. I will carry out the composition of functional groups present in the biochar samples using a Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) (Thermo Scientific Nicolet iS10, US) located in the Soil Chemistry Laboratory at Utah State University in the 4000-400 cm-1 range with a resolution of 0.4 cm−1. Using a completely randomized design approach, data analysis will be conducted in SAS and R as a 3 x 4 x 3 factorial experiment. Objective 2: The second objective will focus on how applying biochar with manure shapes phosphorus dynamics in soils. A 120-day experiment will be set up using co-applied and nutrient-enriched biochars (incubated for two months) using 15.4cm diameter PVC collars. The experiment will comprise control, co-applied, and enriched biochar treatments set up and replicated four times. The biochar will be produced from the three woody materials identified in Objective A, while the manure sources will include dairy and horse manure. The columns will be incubated at 25°C for 120 days. The columns will be destructively sampled at 30, 60, 90, and 120 days. The samples would be analyzed for extractable P and expression of P cycling genes. After 60 days of incubation, the columns will be leached using simulated rainfall (deionized water) every ten days for 60 days. The leachate will be analyzed for soluble P. Total phosphorus concentrations in the leachate will be measured by ICP-OES at the Utah State University Analytical Laboratory. The leachate samples will then be freeze-dried and re-dissolved in D2O for NMR analysis. I will carry out 31P NMR spectra on a Bruker Avance III 500 MHz Spectrometer with proton decoupling to obtain phosphorus speciation data at the Utah State University Magnetic Resonance Facility. Signals corresponding to orthophosphate, pyrophosphate, phytate and other P species will be identified and integrated. Relative abundances of the P compounds will be compared across biochar application rates. P leaching losses and lability will be related to the observed biochar-induced changes in phosphorus chemical speciation based on 31P NMR. This coupled soil column leaching and NMR spectroscopy methodology will provide novel molecular-level insights into how biochar alters phosphorus mobility and transformations related to plant availability. Objective 3:The third objective involves assessing the effects of pristine and manure-enriched biochar amendments on soil health and plant growth under varying moisture levels ranging from severe drought to optimal irrigation in alkaline soil in a greenhouse experiment. A greenhouse experiment will assess the effects of pristine and manure-enriched biochar amendments on soil health and plant growth under varying moisture levels ranging from severe drought to optimal irrigation in alkaline soil. The treatments will include a control with no amendment, pristine biochar from Russian olive, loblolly pine, and Tamarisk, and biochars pre-incubated with dairy manure for two months before application. Application rates will be 5% biochar by weight (equivalent to approximately 50 t/ha). Corn will be grown in 5kg pots with four replications per treatment. Moisture regimes will range from 30% field capacity for severe drought, 60% for Project Narrative9moderate drought, and 80% field capacity for optimal irrigation. Pots will be maintained at target moisture levels through gravity irrigation. The 12-week greenhouse experiment will include soil microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen measurements, dehydrogenase, phosphatase, beta-glucosidase and beta-glucosaminindase enzyme activities, inorganic N, plant growth, plant tissue concentrations, and other soil chemical properties at periodic intervals Genomic DNA will be extracted from 0.5 g of fresh soil using a PowerSoil kit. Shotgun metagenomics on the Illumina MiSeq platform will provide a comprehensive view of microbial diversity and functional potential, including phosphatase genes associated with soil phosphorus cycling. Data will undergo quality control, functional annotation via the KEGG database, and comparative analysis to reveal insights into phosphorus cycling genetics across varying soil conditions (Toole et al., 2021). I will conduct the metagenomics in the Center for Integrated Biosytem at Utah State University. The community composition data will be integrated with phosphorus-cycling gene expression patterns to associate specific microbial populations with functional dynamics. Using SAS and R, data will be analyzed using a two-way ANOVA technique to compare soil health indicators and plant growth between treatments under each moisture regime.