Impact of coffee biochar on carbon, microbial biomass and enzyme activities of a sandy soil cultivated with bean

Abstract

Biochar has been used to reuse the agro-industrial wastes and improve soil quality. Several studies have been carried out to show the impact of biochar on physical and chemical soil attributes. However, there are still gaps regarding the effects on as microbial biomass and enzymatic activities that are important to determine sensitive indicators to evaluate changes in management practices. The objective of this study was to assess the effect of two biochars on the chemical, microbial biomass carbon, and the enzymatic activities in an Entisol cultivated with bean. We evaluate two types of coffee biochar: ground and husks, four doses (4, 8, 12, and 16 Mg ha-1) and control. All treatments received organic fertilization with cow manure. Husks biochar increase the soil pH, Ca, and K, also contributing to the reduction of toxic aluminum contentes and raising the concentrations of P labile. The treatments that received ground biochar showed higher soil organic carbon, microbial biomass, β-glucosidase, and fl uorescein diacetate. Biochar produced from coffee residues increased sandy soil quality. We showed the fi rst report on the benefi cial impact of coffee biochar on enzymatic and microbiological quality of sandy soil cultivated with the bean.