Biochar alters microbial community and carbon sequestration potential across different soil pH

Biochar application to soil has been proposed for soil carbon sequestration and global warming mitigation. While recent studies have demonstrated that soil pH was a main factor affecting soil microbial community and stability of biochar, little information is available for the microbiome across different soil pH and the subsequently CO₂ emission. To investigate soil microbial response and CO₂ emission of biochar across different pH levels, comparative incubation studies on CO₂ emission, degradation of biochar, and microbial communities in a ferralsol (pH5.19) and a phaeozems (pH7.81) with 4 biochar addition rates (0.5%, 1.0%, 2.0%, 5.0%) were conducted. Biochar induced higher CO₂ emission in acidic ferralsol, largely due to the higher biochar degradation, while the more drastic negative priming effect (PE) of SOC resulted in decreased total CO₂ emission in alkaline phaeozems. The higher bacteria diversity, especially the enrichment of copiotrophic bacteria such as Bacteroidetes, Gemmatimonadetes, and decrease of oligotrophic bacteria such as Acidobacteria, were responsible for the increased CO₂ emission and initial positive PE of SOC in ferralsol, whereas biochar did not change the relative abundances of most bacteria at phylum level in phaeozems. The relative abundances of other bacterial taxa (i.e. Actinobacteria, Anaerolineae) known to degrade aromatic compounds were also elevated in both soils. Soil pH was considered to be the dominant factor to affect CO₂ emission by increasing the bioavailability of organic carbon and abundance of copiotrophic bacteria after biochar addition in ferralsol. However, the decreased bioavailability of SOC via adsorption of biochar resulted in higher abundance of oligotrophic bacteria in phaeozems, leading to the decrease in CO₂ emission.