Effects of sugarcane residue biochar and P fertilizer on P availability and its fractions in a calcareous clay loam soil

Abstract

Biochar has the potential to affect the cycle of phosphorus (P), but the underlying mechanisms of its effects remain poorly understood in calcareous soils. Our understanding of the effects of biochar is limited in calcareous soils during incubation. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate how the availability and mineral fractions of P change after the addition of combined biochar and P fertilizer during incubation in calcareous soil. Sugarcane residue (raw SR) and biochar (400 °C for 2 h) were added to soils treated with 50 mg kg −1 of P, in the form of Ca(H 2 PO 4) 2 •H 2 O, at 0.5 and 1% (w/w). The soils were incubated at 25 ± 1 °C for 120 days. Available P (Olsen P) contents and mineral P fractions were measured after various incubation times (7, 30, 90, and 120 days). Biochar addition remarkably increased the amount of available P when compared with the raw SR treatment and the control condition (P < 0.05). After 30 days of incubation, the amount of available P in the soils decreased and remained unchanged thereafter. The results indicated that the addition of 50 mg kg −1 of P as fertilizer significantly augmented the labile P and P associated with Fe and Al in all the treatments at all incubation times (P < 0.05). In comparison with P treated with raw SR, P associated with Fe and Al was significantly enhanced after biochar addition (P < 0.05). Significant correlations were found for available P with labile P and P associated with Fe and Al. We found that biochar addition could increase available pools, thus improving available P concentrations at various incubation times. Therefore, we conclude that sugarcane residue biochar can enhance the available P in calcareous soils.

Poultry litter biochar rates and incubation times: effects on soil fertility and radish development

“…Overall, increasing biochar rates in the soil increased the values of all these parameters. Incubation time caused the pH values of the soil samples to decrease linearly, corroborating Safian, Motaghian and Hosseinpur (2020). The other soil parameters showed higher values in the non-incubated samples compared with those incubated for 30, 60, and 90 days.…”

“…This was probably because there was not enough time for biochar to react in the soil, releasing the nutrients from its structure to it. However, available phosphorus in the soil increased with biochar rates up to around 40 t ha -1 , corroborating Sousa and Figueiredo (2016) and Safian et al (2020). The increase in available P content in the soil was due to the high concentration of this nutrient in biochar.…”

Physio-Chemical Characterization of Biochar, Compost and Co-Composted Biochar Derived from Green Waste

“…Higher temperature decreases biochar yield and increases ash content [19][20][21]. Biochar is a suitable soil amendment that provide carbon to soil while enhancing water retention [22], retained nutrients improve microbial activity [23], and nitrogen fixation. Biochar is beneficial due to its highly porous structure, wide range of functional groups [24,25], high negative surface charges, and large cation exchange capacity (CEC) [26].…”

Assessment of Water Hyacinth Biochar as a Soil Amendment for Sandy Soils

“…Biochar exhibits a great potential in maintaining soil fertility, deactivating pesticides over abiotic degradation and accelerating pesticide biodegradation (Ding et al, 2017). Biochar is a suitable soil amendment to provide long-lasting carbon enrichment of infertile sandy soils while enhancing water retention (Litvinovich et al, 2016;Hammam and Mohamed, 2018;Mohamed and Hammam, 2019;Safian et al 2020;Khadem et al, 2021); to enhance macro-and micro-nutrient retention and soil microbial and enzymatic activity (Pokharel et al 2020;Khadem et al, 2021). Biochar achieves these benefits due to its highly porous carbonaceous structure, wide range of functional high negative charged groups (Lam et al, 2020;Foong et al, 2020), large cation exchange capacity (CEC) (Pradhan et al, 2020;Khadem et al, 2021).…”