Effects of biochar application rate on sandy desert soil properties and sorghum growth

Crop response to soils amended with biochar: expected benefits and unintended risks

“…When the application rate was raised to between 100 and 120 t ha −1 , a 10-20% decrease in yield was observed. When Deenik et al (2010) and Laghari et al (2015) observed similar results, it suggested that higher dose application to soil might negatively affect crop yield ascribed to either immobilisation of N onto BC surfaces that makes them unavailable to plants, or release of a toxic or volatile compounds (e.g. PAHs, PCBs) detrimental to crop growth (Clough et al, 2013;Spokas et al, 2011).…”

“…Many recent studies have reported increased crop yield (Subedi et al, 2016a;Vaccari et al, 2011;Usman et al, 2016;Kammann et al, 2012;Baronti et al, 2010;Uzoma et al, 2011;Houben et al, 2013;Genesio et al, 2015;Cornelissen et al, 2013;De La Rosa et al, 2014;Fox et al, 2014;Gregory et al, 2014;Lin et al, 2015;Schmidt et al, 2015;Butnan et al, 2015;Laghari et al, 2015;Mandal et al, 2016). Others have reported no yield effect (Cornelissen et al, 2013;Uzoma et al, 2011;Nelissen et al, 2015;Subedi et al, 2016aSubedi et al, , 2016bNielsen et al, 2014;Tammeorg et al, 2014;Suddick and Six, 2013;Schmidt et al, 2014;Bass et al, 2016).…”

“…Others have reported no yield effect (Cornelissen et al, 2013;Uzoma et al, 2011;Nelissen et al, 2015;Subedi et al, 2016aSubedi et al, , 2016bNielsen et al, 2014;Tammeorg et al, 2014;Suddick and Six, 2013;Schmidt et al, 2014;Bass et al, 2016). Conversly, few studies have instead described reduced crop yields (Deenik et al, 2010;Baronti et al, 2010;Marks et al, 2014;Nelissen et al, 2014;Bass et al, 2016;Butnan et al, 2015;Laghari et al, 2015). Therefore, interest has emerged to study BC effects that negatively alter crop growth (Jeffery et al, 2011(Jeffery et al, , 2015aSpokas et al, 2012;Biederman and Harpole, 2013;Wang et al, 2016, Olmo et al, 2016.…”

“…Negative effects on crop growth are mostly reported with BCs obtained from municipal waste, food waste, and sewage sludge because their excessive Na contents increase soil salinity (Liu et al, 2013;Wisnubroto et al, 2011;Rajkovich et al, 2012). Other negative effects from plant-and wood-based BCs are due to one of the following causes: high application rates, high volatile matter contents detrimental to crop growth, reduced plant available N, or negative liming effect in alkaline and calcareous (Deenik et al, 2010;Nelissen et al, 2014;Laghari et al, 2015;Bass et al, 2016;Marks et al, 2014). Baronti et al (2010), in a pot experiment with high BC rates, reported a perennial ryegrass yield increase by 29−120% after BC derived from orchard pruning was applied at between 30-60 t ha −1 to sandy-loam soil with sub-acid pH.…”

Recent developments in biochar as an effective tool for agricultural soil management: a review

“…Biochar addition to soil has been demonstrated to increase the availability of basic plant nutrients . Previous research on biochar suggests that, it can be used in acidic as well as in a well‐drained sandy soil in order to retain more plant‐available water and nutrients . Most of the published studies cited above support the use of biochar as a soil conditioner to enhance plant nutrients status of agricultural soils.…”