Influence of biochar and terra preta substrates on wettability and erodibility of soils

Smetanová, Anna; Dotterweich, Markus; Diehl, Dörte; Ulrich, Uta; Dotterweich, Nicola Fohrer

doi:10.1127/0372-8854/2012/s-00117

Cited by 51 publications

(26 citation statements)

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“…The mean change effectiveness of biochar application on runoff volume 24 and 48 h before the simulation treatment were −98.46% and −46.39%, respectively. It verified that the biochar amendment could store more runoff leading to more infiltration, as already reported by Smetanová et al (2012) who highlighted that the 10% biochar decreased runoff by up to~40%. When 10% biochar was applied on a 15% slope, it decreased the runoff coefficient of the control condition by up to 59% with a runoff coefficient of 16% at the end of the experiment.…”

Section: Effect Of Biochar On Runoffsupporting

confidence: 84%

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Controllability of runoff and soil loss from small plots treated by vinasse-produced biochar

Sadeghi

Hazbavi

Kiani-Harchegani

2016

Science of The Total Environment

120

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Section: Effect Of Biochar On Runoffsupporting

confidence: 84%

“…Few studies (Smetanová et al, 2012;Jien and Wang, 2013;Hseu et al, 2014) have discussed the influences of biochar on soil erosion potential. However, the potential effects of biochar made from vinasse, as the first attempt, on runoff and soil loss control has not been assessed or documented yet.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Controllability of runoff and soil loss from small plots treated by vinasse-produced biochar

Sadeghi

Hazbavi

Kiani-Harchegani

2016

Science of The Total Environment

120

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“…We used the contact angle of a hydrophilic sand ( θ c ≈0°) because previous studies showed that biochar only causes a small degree of change in contact angle in soil [27, 28]. Based on this, we then estimated that ψ will be greater than -2.88 kPa when interpore size >0.1 mm.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biochar particle size, shape, and porosity act together to influence soil water properties

et al. 2017

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Many studies report that, under some circumstances, amending soil with biochar can improve field capacity and plant-available water. However, little is known about the mechanisms that control these improvements, making it challenging to predict when biochar will improve soil water properties. To develop a conceptual model explaining biochar’s effects on soil hydrologic processes, we conducted a series of well constrained laboratory experiments using a sand matrix to test the effects of biochar particle size and porosity on soil water retention curves. We showed that biochar particle size affects soil water storage through changing pore space between particles (interpores) and by adding pores that are part of the biochar (intrapores). We used these experimental results to better understand how biochar intrapores and biochar particle shape control the observed changes in water retention when capillary pressure is the main component of soil water potential. We propose that biochar’s intrapores increase water content of biochar-sand mixtures when soils are drier. When biochar-sand mixtures are wetter, biochar particles’ elongated shape disrupts the packing of grains in the sandy matrix, increasing the volume between grains (interpores) available for water storage. These results imply that biochars with a high intraporosity and irregular shapes will most effectively increase water storage in coarse soils.

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“…Charcoal produced during wildfires is a black carbon material similar to biochar. However, charcoal is neither produced under engineered conditions nor intentionally added to soil (Smetanova et al, 2013). Because of the low‐oxygen content near the ground surface during wildfires (Bryant et al, 2005), pyrolytic conditions occur and fresh hydrophobic charcoals are produced (Briggs et al, 2012).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Freshly created biochars from corn stover, magnolia leaf, and apple wood were found to be hydrophobic when pyrolyzed at ∼300 to 400°C but hydrophilic at pyrolysis temperatures of 500 to 600°C (Kinney et al, 2012). The pyrolysis temperature ranges for the creation of hydrophobic or hydrophilic biochars may not be universal because biochars produced from wood and bark at 500 to 600°C were hydrophobic (Smetanova et al, 2013).…”

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confidence: 99%

The Origin and Reversible Nature of Poultry Litter Biochar Hydrophobicity

Witt

Chiu

et al. 2015

J. Environ. Qual.

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Transient changes in wettability complicate the prediction of biochar's hydrologic effects. Biochar wetting properties were characterized from poultry litter biochar (PLBC) produced from slow pyrolysis at temperatures between 300 and 600°C with water drop penetration time (persistence of hydrophobicity) and contact angle (CA; severity of hydrophobicity) measurements. Hydrophobicity was associated with semivolatile organic compounds coating PLBC surfaces, which resulted in 24.4 carbon layers and CAs of 101.1 ± 2.9° at a pyrolysis temperature of 300°C but only 0.4 layers of surface coverage and CAs of 20.6 ± 1.3° when pyrolyzed at 600°C. Mixing PLBC with water removed organic coatings, and storage in water for 72 h decreased CA as much as 81° for the most hydrophobic PLBCs. When mixed with quartz sand of the same particle size, CAs of PLBC-sand mixtures increased from 6.6 ± 1.4° at 0% PLBC mass fraction to 48.3 ± 2.0° at 15% mass fraction. Hydrophobic and hydrophilic PLBCs increased CA by nearly identical amounts at 2 and 5% mass fractions, which was explained by the influence of PLBC particle topology on macroscopic surface roughness of PLBC-sand mixtures. For environmentally relevant situations, PLBC-sand mixtures at mass fractions ≤15% remained water wetting. However, all PLBC additions increased CA, which may alter infiltration rates and induce preferential water flow.

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Influence of biochar and terra preta substrates on wettability and erodibility of soils

Cited by 51 publications

References 0 publications

Controllability of runoff and soil loss from small plots treated by vinasse-produced biochar

Controllability of runoff and soil loss from small plots treated by vinasse-produced biochar

Biochar particle size, shape, and porosity act together to influence soil water properties

The Origin and Reversible Nature of Poultry Litter Biochar Hydrophobicity

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