Dynamic of soil carbon treated with biosolid in a reforestation with Eucalyptus

• Grant number: 01/10761-1
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: May 01, 2002
• End date: February 28, 2006
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Agronomy - Soil Science
• Principal Investigator: Brigitte Josefine Feigl
• Grantee: Brigitte Josefine Feigl
• Host Institution: Centro de Energia Nuclear na Agricultura (CENA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Piracicaba , SP, Brazil
• City of the host institution: Piracicaba

Abstract

The growing concern over the environment, principally related to depollution of rivers, has led some cities to treat their domestic sewage. The material resulting from the sewage treatment stations, called biosolid, is rich in organic matter and nutrient and could be applied to agricultural and forest soils as substitute for or complement to chemical fertilization, as it offers improvements in the physical, chemical and biological properties of the soil. Since it possesses a large quantity of organic matter, the material offers potential for carbon sequestration. The general objective of the proposal is to evaluate the effect of the biosolid applied in a eucalyptus plantation on the stock of carbon and the productivity of the crop, in addition to determining alterations in the quality of the organic matter in the soil. As specific objectives we propose: a) to quantify the stock of carbon in the soil before the installation of the experiment to ascertain the spatial variability; b) to periodically quantify the stocks of carbon in the soil to ascertain the rate of mineralization of the biosolid; c) to monitor the emission of gases (CO2 and CH4) from the soil and to compare with the rate of mineralization of the soil incorporated with biosolid; d) to calculate the quantity of C remaining from the previous crop and that introduced through the biosolid by means of the use of isotopic techniques which include 13C; and) to evaluate the primary liquid production of the areas with eucalyptus which received biosolid in comparison with areas without biosolid. (AU)