Corn cob biochar increases soil culturable bacterial abundance without enhancing their capacities in utilizing carbon sources in Biolog Eco-plates

Biochar has been shown to influence soil microbial communities in terms of their abundance and diversity. However, the relationship among microbial abundance, structure and C metabolic traits is not well studied under biochar application. Here it was hypothesized that the addition of biochar with intrinsic properties (i.e., porous structure) could affect the proliferation of culturable microbes and the genetic structure of soil bacterial communities. In the meantime, the presence of available organic carbon in biochar may influence the C utilization capacities of microbial community in Biolog Eco-plates. A pot experiment was conducted with differenct biochar application (BC) rates: control (0 t ha−1), BC1 (20 t ha−1) and BC2 (40 t ha−1). Culturable microorganisms were enumerated via the plate counting method. Bacterial diversity was examined using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE). Microbial capacity in using C sources was assessed using Biolog Eco-plates. The addition of biochar stimulated the growth of actinomyces and bacteria, especially the ammonifying bacteria and azotobacteria, but had no significant effect on fungi proliferation. The phylogenetic distribution of the operational taxonomic units could be divided into the following groups with the biochar addition: Firmicutes, Acidobacteria, Gemmatimonadetes, Actinobacteria, Cyanobacteria and a-, (β-, y- and δ-Proteobacteria (average similarity >95%). Biochar application had a higher capacity utilization for L-asparagine, Tween 80, D-mannitol, L-serine, γ-hybroxybutyric acid, N-acetyl-D-glucosamine, glycogen, itaconic acid, glycyl-L-glutamic acid, a-ketobutyricacid and putrescine, whereas it had received decreased capacities in using the other 20 carbon sources in Biolog Eco-plates. Redundancy analysis (RDA) revealed that the physico-chemical properties, indices of bacterial diversity, and C metabolic traits were positively correlated with the appearance of novel sequences under BC2 treatment. Our study indicates that the addition of biochar can increase culturable microbial abundance and shift bacterial genetic structure without enhancing their capacities in utilizing C sources in Biolog Eco-plates, which could Univerbe associated with the porous structure and nutrients from biochar.