TY - JOUR
T1 - Carbon sequestration value of biosolids applied to soil
T2 - A global meta-analysis
AU - Wijesekara, Hasintha
AU - Colyvas, Kim
AU - Rippon, Paul
AU - Hoang, Son A.
AU - Bolan, Nanthi S.
AU - Manna, Madhab Chandra
AU - Thangavel, Ramesh
AU - Seshadri, Balaji
AU - Vithanage, Meththika
AU - Awad, Yasser M.
AU - Surapaneni, Aravind
AU - Saint, Christopher
AU - Tian, Guanglong
AU - Torri, Silvana
AU - Ok, Yong Sik
AU - Kirkham, M. B.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to acknowledge the work carried out by the researchers whose published data were used for this meta-analysis and who provided and clarified their data whenever necessary. This research was partly supported by Australian Research Council Discovery Project ( DP140100323 ). This research is one of the outcomes of the research project on “Carbon sequestration from land application of biosolids.” We thank South East Water (Dr. Aravind Surapaneni), Western Water (William Rajendram), Gippsland Water (Simon Aquilina), City West Water (Sean Hanrahan), Yarra Valley Water (Clint Vandepeer), and Cleanaway Organics (Chris Hetherington) for supporting this research project.
Funding Information:
The authors would like to acknowledge the work carried out by the researchers whose published data were used for this meta-analysis and who provided and clarified their data whenever necessary. This research was partly supported by Australian Research Council Discovery Project (DP140100323). This research is one of the outcomes of the research project on ?Carbon sequestration from land application of biosolids.? We thank South East Water (Dr. Aravind Surapaneni), Western Water (William Rajendram), Gippsland Water (Simon Aquilina), City West Water (Sean Hanrahan), Yarra Valley Water (Clint Vandepeer), and Cleanaway Organics (Chris Hetherington) for supporting this research project.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2021/4/15
Y1 - 2021/4/15
N2 - Biosolids produced at wastewater treatment facilities are extensively used in agricultural land and degraded mine sites to improve soil health and soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks. Many studies have reported increases in SOC due to application of biosolids to such sites. However, lack of a comprehensive quantification on overall trends and changes of magnitude in SOC remains. Here, we performed a meta-analysis to identify drivers with a relationship with SOC stocks. A meta-regression of 297 treatments found four variables with a relationship with SOC stocks: cumulative biosolids carbon (C) input rate, time after application, soil depth and type of biosolids. The cumulative biosolids C input rate was the most influencing driver. The highest mean difference for SOC% of 3.3 was observed at 0–15 cm soil depth for a cumulative C input of 100 Mg ha−1 at one year after biosolids application. Although years after biosolids application demonstrated a negative relationship with SOC stocks, mineralization of C in biosolids-applied soils is slow, as indicated with the SOC% decrease from 4.6 to 2.8 at 0–15 cm soil depth over five years of 100 Mg ha−1 biosolids C input. Soil depth illustrated a strong negative effect with SOC stocks decreasing by 2.7% at 0–15 cm soil depth at a cumulative biosolids C input of 100 Mg ha−1 over a year. Overall, our model estimated an effect of 2.8 SOC% change, indicating the application of biosolids as a viable strategy for soil C sequestration on a global scale.
AB - Biosolids produced at wastewater treatment facilities are extensively used in agricultural land and degraded mine sites to improve soil health and soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks. Many studies have reported increases in SOC due to application of biosolids to such sites. However, lack of a comprehensive quantification on overall trends and changes of magnitude in SOC remains. Here, we performed a meta-analysis to identify drivers with a relationship with SOC stocks. A meta-regression of 297 treatments found four variables with a relationship with SOC stocks: cumulative biosolids carbon (C) input rate, time after application, soil depth and type of biosolids. The cumulative biosolids C input rate was the most influencing driver. The highest mean difference for SOC% of 3.3 was observed at 0–15 cm soil depth for a cumulative C input of 100 Mg ha−1 at one year after biosolids application. Although years after biosolids application demonstrated a negative relationship with SOC stocks, mineralization of C in biosolids-applied soils is slow, as indicated with the SOC% decrease from 4.6 to 2.8 at 0–15 cm soil depth over five years of 100 Mg ha−1 biosolids C input. Soil depth illustrated a strong negative effect with SOC stocks decreasing by 2.7% at 0–15 cm soil depth at a cumulative biosolids C input of 100 Mg ha−1 over a year. Overall, our model estimated an effect of 2.8 SOC% change, indicating the application of biosolids as a viable strategy for soil C sequestration on a global scale.
KW - Biowaste utilization
KW - Climate change mitigation
KW - Sewage sludge
KW - Soil fertility
KW - Soil organic carbon
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85100028404&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.112008
DO - 10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.112008
M3 - Article
C2 - 33529883
AN - SCOPUS:85100028404
SN - 0301-4797
VL - 284
JO - Journal of Environmental Management
JF - Journal of Environmental Management
M1 - 112008
ER -