Biochar increases maize yield by promoting root growth in the rainfed region

Assessing the impacts of biochar‐blended urea on nitrogen use efficiency and soil retention in wheat production

“…All these results suggest potential improvement of soil N storage and availability together with microbial growth due to SOC enhancement, likely contributed by improved wheat production following BU application. Biochar added with fertilizer could provide habitat for plant roots and microbial communities (Lehmann et al, 2011;Liu et al, 2020;Xiang et al, 2017), which could have the best response to available N, particularly DON, in the rooted zone with active soil-rootbiochar interactions (Lehmann et al, 2015).…”

Biochar increases rice yield by improving root morphological and root physiological functions in heavily saline-sodic paddy soil of Northeast China

“…It is known that the stronger root oxidation capacity, the greater the ability of rice roots to secrete oxygen. This not only promotes root respiration and nutrients absorption, but it also helps protect the roots from toxic substances (Prendergast-Miller et al 2014;Farhangi-Abriz and Torabian 2018;Liu et al 2020a). In the present experiment, biochar application significantly increased the root oxidation capacity (Fig.…”

“…Recent research has shown that biochar applications could optimize morphology and physiological characteristics, facilitate root elongation and root cell viability, enhance root absorption vigor under non-stressed soil by increasing the soil capacity to store water, and improve soil nutrient status and soil structure (Bruun et al 2014;Xiao et al 2016;Shahram et al 2018;Liu et al 2020a). Under salt-stress condition, Mehmood et al (2020) found that the crucial role of biochar in minimizing the adverse effects of high salinity on soybean growth and efficiency of the mechanisms enabling protecting from salinity through a shift of the architecture of the root system and enhancing the antioxidant defense systems and stress-responsive genes.…”

“…Although many studies of biochar applications on salted soil have been reported, most studies have focused on dryland crops or on the aboveground part of crops (Chakraborty et al 2016;Farhangi-Abriz and Torabian 2017;Liu et al 2020a;Yao et al 2021). To date, there are few reports on the effect of biochar on root morphological characteristics and physiological functions of rice under saline-sodic paddy soil.…”

Enhancing plant N uptake with biochar-based fertilizers: limitation of sorption and prospects

“…In these studies, the BCFs were enriched in N, P, K, and displayed a high pH and a low surface area, the latter probably due to coating or filling of pores with clay and fertilizer (Table 3). Mechanisms responsible for stimulation of plant yield by BCFs are still under investigation, but in summary the majority of studies stated either a slow release effect or increased N use efficiency (NUE), which they partly attributed to: 1) pH-change effects on microbial communities (Nielsen et al 2014), 2) increased root growth and N uptake (Liu et al 2020b;Shi et al 2020;Xiang et al 2017), 3) increased mycorrhizal root colonization (Blackwell et al 2015), 4) increased physical retention of dissolved nutrients and reduced leaching (El Sharkawi et al 2018;Schmidt et al 2017;Schmidt et al 2015;Shi et al 2020;Wen et al 2017), 5) increased nitrification (Liao et al 2020), 6) improved redox conditions and changes in abundance of growth promoting micro-organisms (Chew et al 2020), 7) increased P and K availability (Farrar et al 2019), and 8) slower diffusion of NH 4 + and NO 3 − to soil solution (Liao et al 2020). A number of studies reported increases in NUE but did not suggest responsible mechanisms (Joseph et al 2015;Yao et al 2015).…”