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Publications

NIBIOs employees contribute to several hundred scientific articles and research reports every year. You can browse or search in our collection which contains references and links to these publications as well as other research and dissemination activities. The collection is continously updated with new and historical material.

2014

Abstract

Studies examining the effect of biochar on N2O turnover in soil have demonstrated that biochar affects both the rate and product ratio of denitrification. The mechanisms proposed include pH effects on N2O reductase , sorption of N2O and electron shuttling to N2O reductases. Recent studies suggest that pyrolysis alters the redox chemistry of biochar leading to the formation of redox active compounds which are thought to mediate the observed suppression of N2O in biochar amended soil. Redox active components however may not only be of significance to biological processes but also catalyze abiotic reactions of N-species which could confound the estimation of biological effects. Here we report experiments designed to examined abiotic interaction between biochar and NO in anoxic water slurries with biochar of increasing pyrolysis temperature. We determined the fate of NO added to the headspace of closed anoxic bottles using high frequency measurements of NO, N2O and N2. Our initial results show a swift disappearance of added NO which can not entirely be attributed to sorption to the biochar. Small but constant quantities of N2O were generated after NO addition indicating abiotic turnover of NO by biochar. NO is an important signal molecule in the regulation of denitrification and hence it is important to elucidate possible abiotic feedbacks of NO reactions in soil. The results will be discussed relative to the redox properties of the biochars tested.