Publication detail

Assessment of digestates prepared from maize, legumes, and their mixed culture as soil amendments: Effects on plant biomass and soil properties

HAMMERSCHMIEDT, T. KINTL, A. HOLÁTKO, J. MUSTAFA, A. MALÍČEK, O. BALTAZÁR, T. ELBL, J. BRTNICKÝ, M.

Original Title

Assessment of digestates prepared from maize, legumes, and their mixed culture as soil amendments: Effects on plant biomass and soil properties

Type

journal article in Web of Science

Language

English

Original Abstract

Digestate prepared from anaerobic digestion can be used as a fertilizer, as it contains ample amounts of plant nutrients, mainly nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium. In this regard, digestates produced from mixed intercropped cereal and legume biomass have the potential to enrich soil and plants with nutrients more efficiently than monoculture-based digestates. The objective of this study was to determine the impact of different types of digestates applied at a rate of 40 t center dot ha(-1) of fresh matter on soil properties and crop yield in a pot experiment with lettuce (Lactuca sativa) as a test crop. Anaerobic digestion of silages was prepared from the following monocultures and mixed cultures: broad bean, maize, maize and broad bean, maize and white sweet clover, and white sweet clover. Anaerobic digestion was performed in an automatic custom-made system and applied to the soil. Results revealed that fresh and dry aboveground biomass as well as the amount of nitrogen in plants significantly increased in all digestate-amended variants in comparison to control. The highest content of soil total nitrogen (+11% compared to the control) and urease (+3% compared to control) were observed for maize digestate amendment. Broad bean digestate mediated the highest oxidizable carbon (+48%), basal respiration (+46%), and N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosamine-, L-alanine-, and L-lysine-induced respiration (+22%, +35%, +22%) compared to control. Moreover, maize and broad bean digestate resulted in the highest values of N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminidase and beta -glucosidase (+35% and +39%), and maize and white sweet clover digestate revealed the highest value of arylsulfatase (+32%). The observed differences in results suggest different effects of applied digestates. We thus concluded that legume-containing digestates possibly stimulate microbial activity (as found in increased respiration rates), and might lead to increased nitrogen losses if the more quickly mineralized nitrogen is not taken up by the plants.

Keywords

waste management; agriculture; organic fertilizer; microbial activity; nutrient cycling

Authors

HAMMERSCHMIEDT, T.; KINTL, A.; HOLÁTKO, J.; MUSTAFA, A.; MALÍČEK, O.; BALTAZÁR, T.; ELBL, J.; BRTNICKÝ, M.

Released

13. 12. 2022

Publisher

FRONTIERS MEDIA SA

Location

LAUSANNE

ISBN

1664-462X

Periodical

Frontiers in Plant Science

Year of study

13

Number

1017191

State

Swiss Confederation

Pages from

1

Pages to

14

Pages count

14

URL

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2022.1017191/full

BibTex

@article{BUT182169,
  author="Tereza {Hammerschmiedt} and Antonín {Kintl} and Jiří {Holátko} and Adnan {Mustafa} and Ondřej {Malíček} and Tivadar {Baltazár} and Jakub {Elbl} and Martin {Brtnický}",
  title="Assessment of digestates prepared from maize, legumes, and their mixed culture as soil amendments: Effects on plant biomass and soil properties",
  journal="Frontiers in Plant Science",
  year="2022",
  volume="13",
  number="1017191",
  pages="14",
  doi="10.3389/fpls.2022.1017191",
  issn="1664-462X",
  url="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2022.1017191/full"
}