Novel Nutrient Sources For Enhancing Soil Nutrient Recycling in Cropping Systems of the Prairies

土壤保持的一个重要方面是养分循环。植物和动物从土壤中吸收的养分需要归还给土壤，以维持生产力，减少我们对新的肥料养分来源的依赖。生物燃料-生物能源工业的扩张导致这些过程中含有营养的副产品的可用性增加，这些副产品有可能用作肥料。拟议的研究计划将调查生物能源生产的各种副产品，以及它们在添加到土壤中时作为植物有效磷和氮的宝贵来源的潜力。需要评估其潜在影响的副产品包括乙醇生产的副产品，如蒸馏水，以及燃烧副产品，如灰烬和木炭(生物炭)。例如，灰烬和木炭可以从木本植物和农作物生物质的气化和热解等过程中提取，并作为处理屠宰场废物等作物和动物加工副产品的一种手段。将评估的影响包括营养量、形态(形态)和周转、温室气体产生、作物对添加的养分的恢复以及作物的产量和质量。将这些副产品用作肥料提供了一种有效的方法来回收所含的营养物质。然而，副产品往往含有复杂的无机和有机形式的营养，其溶解度和植物可利用性各不相同。拟议的研究将结合常规化学和更新颖的光谱调查技术，在受控环境条件下和田间试验中，密切跟踪土壤-植物系统中这些副产品中添加的养分的命运。生物能源联合产品的性能将与传统的商业肥料养分来源进行比较。

An important aspect of soil conservation is nutrient recycling. Nutrients that are taken from the soil by plants and animals need to be returned to the soil to maintain productivity and reduce our reliance on new sources of fertilizer nutrient. The expansion of the biofuel-bioenergy industry has led to the increased availability of nutrient containing co-products of these processes that have potential use as fertilizers. The proposed research program will investigate various co-products of bioenergy production and their potential to serve as valuable sources of plant available phosphorus and nitrogen when added to the soil.By-products that require evaluation for their potential impacts include co-products of ethanol production such as stillage, and combustion co-products like ashes and chars (biochars). For example, ashes and chars may be derived from processes like gasification and pyrolysis of woody and crop biomass, and as a means of disposal of crop and animal processing by-products like slaughterhouse wastes. Effects that will be evaluated include nutrient amounts, forms (speciation) and turnover, greenhouse gas production, crop recovery of added nutrient, and crop yield and quality. Use of these co-products as fertilizers provides an effective means for recycling the nutrients contained within. However, the co-products often contain nutrient in complex inorganic and organic forms which vary in solubility and plant availability. The proposed research will closely follow the fate of added nutrient in these co-products in the soil-plant system, under controlled environment conditions and in field trials, using a combination of conventional chemical as well as more novel spectroscopic investigative techniques. The performance of the bioenergy co-products will be compared to conventional commercial fertilizer nutrient sources.