Abstract:
Abstract— Organic amendments provide
good nutritional input to the soil by
maintaining environmental sustainability.
Availability of nutrients are less due to soil
salinization and acidity in Alfisols and Ultisols,
respectively.Therefore, this study aims to
assess the effect of vermicompost, biochar and
biodynamic formulated biochar on C and N
mineralization in Alfisols and Ultisols,the main
soil types that cover land area in Sri Lanka.
Vermicompost and biochar with and without
biodynamic formulation were applied to soil
types separately according to the specific
rates. After incorporating the amendments,
pH, EC, nitrate-N, ammonium-N and CO2
evolution were determined up to 63 days.
Statistical analysis was done using SAS
software. According to the results, the pH of
Ultisols with inoculated biochar shows a
lowering at the initial stage, however it was
not significantly different with the control.
Inoculated and non- inoculated biochar with
vermicompost in Alfisols decreased the EC
significantly (p<0.05) in later stages reducing
the salinity compared to the control. In Ultisols
and Alfisols, nitrate-N increased significantly
(p<0.05) in both treatments. The evolved CO2
is significantly high (p<0.05) in microbial
inoculated soil treatments when compared to
non-microbial inoculated soil treatments in
both soil types. It can be concluded that the N
and C mineralization pattern varied among the
treatment in Ultisols and Alfisols and the
biodynamic formulated biochar with
vermicompost showed an impact on
mineralization. Soil amendments have both long term and short term effects. Therefore, it
is recommended to do further studies to
evaluate the long term effect of organic
amendments.
