Aims

Peat is used as a major ingredient of growing media in horticulture. Peat extracted from bogs can be acidic and low in nutrient availability and is therefore mixed with liming agents, nutrients, surfactants, perlite and so on. This study aims to estimate the rates at which raw peat and the modified peat (‘growing media’) decompose to release carbon dioxide (CO₂), to estimate the release of carbon (C) from liming agents and to estimate how peat biogeochemistry is changed.

Methods

We obtained 28 and 24 samples of raw peat and 24 growing media from four peat extraction companies in Canada. Growing media were treated with horticultural additives. We incubated the samples under laboratory conditions, measuring CO₂ production, tracer using \({\updelta }^{13}{\text{C}}\)-\({{\text{CO}}}_{2}\), pH, C, nitrogen (N) content and humification indices (HIs) from infrared technology called Fourier transform-mid infrared (FT-MIR).

Results

C:N ratio, pH, dissolved organic carbon, bulk density and C content differed significantly (P < 0.05) between raw peats and growing media. There was more than a doubling of total \({{\text{CO}}}_{2}\) production from growing media compared to raw peat. HIs show higher values for the growing media, which could result from spectral band shifts in the growing media because of increased cation availability. \({\updelta }^{13}{\text{C}}\)-\({{\text{CO}}}_{2}\) as a tracer showed an average 22% of the total \({{\text{CO}}}_{2}\) production orginated from added carbonate materials.

Conclusion

Our results provide the rates (0.15 ± 0.017mgCO₂-Cg⁻¹d⁻¹) at which horticultural peat decomposes and on the source of emitted \({{\text{CO}}}_{2}\). This will improve current estimates CO₂ emissions from horticultural peat.

中文翻译：

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园艺添加剂影响泥炭生物地球化学并增加泥炭的短期二氧化碳产量

目标

泥炭被用作园艺生长介质的主要成分。从沼泽中提取的泥炭可能呈酸性且养分利用率低，因此与石灰剂、养分、表面活性剂、珍珠岩等混合。本研究旨在估计原始泥炭和改性泥炭（“生长介质”）分解释放二氧化碳（CO ₂ ）的速率，估计石灰剂释放的碳（C），并估计泥炭生物地球化学的变化情况。改变了。

方法

我们从加拿大的四家泥炭提取公司获得了 28 和 24 个原始泥炭样本和 24 个生长介质。生长介质经过园艺添加剂处理。我们在实验室条件下孵育样品，测量 CO ₂产量，使用\({\updelta }^{13}{\text{C}}\) - \({{\text{CO}}}_{2}进行示踪\)、pH、C、氮 (N) 含量和腐殖化指数 (HI) 来自称为傅里叶变换中红外 (FT-MIR) 的红外技术。

结果

 原泥炭和生长介质之间的C:N 比、pH、溶解有机碳、堆积密度和碳含量差异显着 ( P < 0.05)。与原始泥炭相比，生长介质的总产量增加了一倍多（{{\text{CO}}}_{2}\） 。生长介质中的 HI 显示出更高的值，这可能是由于阳离子可用性增加而导致生长介质中的光谱带变化造成的。\({\updelta }^{13}{\text{C}}\) - \({{\text{CO}}}_{2}\)作为示踪剂，平均显示总数的 22% \( {{\text{CO}}}_{2}\)的生产源自添加的碳酸盐材料。

结论

我们的结果提供了园艺泥炭分解的速率 (0.15 ± 0.017mgCO ₂ -Cg ⁻¹ d ⁻¹ ) 以及排放源\({{\text{CO}}}_{2}\)。这将改善目前对园艺泥炭CO _{2排放量的估计。}