Impact of aged charcoal on soil carbon mineralization in subtropical forests

Charcoal is a byproduct of incomplete combustion during fire events and can influence native soil carbon (C) mineralization. We conducted a 78-day soil incubation experiment to assess CO2 emissions from subtropical forest soils amended with charcoal at three ages (fresh, 1 year, 6 years) and two application rates (1% and 3%). We measured physicochemical and surface properties of charcoal collected from the field and pH, total C and nitrogen (N), dissolved organic C, microbial biomass C and N, and enzyme activities of the soil/charcoal mixtures used in our incubation experiment.