Effects of biogas digestate on soil aggregate stability and water infiltration

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00027006%3A_____%2F22%3A10175830" target="_blank" >RIV/00027006:_____/22:10175830 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

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DOI - Digital Object Identifier

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Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Effects of biogas digestate on soil aggregate stability and water infiltration

Original language description

Digestate is a by-product from anaerobic digestion in the biogas plants. Due to the lack of organic fertilizers and rising prices of mineral fertilizers, digestates are increasingly applied directly to agricultural land as a fertilizer. Many works deal with the impact of digestate amendments on soil fertility, expressed by the content of plant-available P, K and mineral N in soil, crop yields or microbial activities. However, the effect of long-term application of digestate on soil physical characteristics is still rather unexplored field of research. Moreover, recent studies dealing with the digestate impact on soil characteristics often show conflicting results. The main goal of our research was to understand the long-term effect of digestate application on soil characteristics compared to mineral and compost fertilization through investigating soil physical and chemical properties and their interactions.The main goal of our research was to understand the long-term effect of digestate application on soil characteristics compared to mineral and compost fertilization through investigating soil physical and chemical properties and their interactions.The research was based on the long-term field experiment carried out since 2011 in three localities in the Czech Republic. Field trial management included conventional tillage and a 6-year crop rotation in sequence potatoes/winter wheat/silage corn/spring barley/oilseed rape/winter wheat. The design was based on 10.82x3.74 m experimental plots in 12 replicates (four replicates per locality). Five treatments of fertilization were evaluated: control unfertilized treatment, mineral fertilized treatment (mixture of ammonium nitrate and finely ground limestone - LAV, 27% N), digestate I (input materials for digestion: corn silage and cattle slurry), digestate II (input materials for digestion: corn silage, pig slurry, farmyard manure and hay). The basic dose of N fertilization depending on the crop grown was 120-150 kg N/ ha for LAV and digestates and 300 kg N/ ha for compost, from which N is released slowly. Soil samples for analysis were taken for 4 years, in spring and summer after harvest.Statistically significant correlations between the stability of 1-2 mm soil aggregates and hydro-physical soil properties, such as soil bulk density (strong negative correlation), porosity (strong positive correlation) and water infiltration (positive correlation) were shown. Type of fertilizer significantly affected soil aggregate stability, where significantly lower stability was observed on unfertilized plots and mineral fertilized plots in comparison with organic, both digestate and compost, fertilized plots. Addition of organic fertilizers also significantly decreased soil bulk density, increased porosity and partly influenced the pore-distribution, with a larger proportion of capillary pores. The improvement of the above-mentioned soil physical properties after addition of organic fertilizers resulted in an increase of water infiltration into the soil. In agreement with other studies significant seasonal variability of soil physical properties, such as soil bulk density, porosity and soil aggregate stability, was confirmed. In addition, actual field conditions significant impact on water infiltration. This variability must be taken into account when assessing the effect of fertilization on the soil characteristics.Our findings confirmed digestate as a valid fertilizer, which is important especially in the context of the development of the agricultural biogas sector in the European Union.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

O - Miscellaneous

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

40106 - Agronomy, plant breeding and plant protection; (Agricultural biotechnology to be 4.4)

Project

<a href="/en/project/QK1810186" target="_blank" >QK1810186: Agrotechnical measures for improvement of soil structure stability and rainwater infiltration</a><br>

Continuities

P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)

Publication year

2022

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů