Abstract
Biochar amendments have been used in agriculture to improve soil fertility and enhance crop productivity. A greenhouse experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that biochar amendment could also enhance the productivity of salt-affected soils. The trial was conducted over two consecutive growing seasons to investigate the effect of biochar amendment (four application rates as: B1 = 0%, B2 = 2%, B3 = 4%, and B4 = 8% by mass of soil) on yield and quality of tomatoes grown in a silt loam soil using non-saline water (I0 = 0.7 dS m−1) and saline water (I1 = 1 dS m−1; I2 = 3 dS m−1) irrigation. Furthermore, the study investigated the mechanism by which biochar addresses the salt stress on plant. The results showed that soil productivity as indicated by the vegetative growth and tomato yield components was adversely and significantly affected by saline water irrigation (P < 0.05). Tomato yield decreased from 689 ± 35.6 to 533 ± 79.0 g per plant as salinity of irrigation water increased from I0 to I2. Then, biochar amendment increased vegetative growth, yield, and quality parameters under saline irrigation water regimes, and ameliorated the salt stresses on crop growth. The highest (8.73 ± 0.15 and 4.10 ± 0.82 g kg−1) and the lowest (8.33 ± 0.08 and 2.42 ± 0.76 g kg−1) values of soil pH and soil organic matter were measured at B4I0 and B1I2 treatments, respectively. Also, the highest rate of biochar amendment combining with non-saline water irrigation (B4I0) produced tomato with the highest plant photosynthetic (17.08 ± 0.19 μmol m−2 s−1) and transpiration rate (8.16 ± 0.18 mmol H2O m−2 s−1). Mechanically, biochar amendment reduced transient sodium ions by adsorption and released mineral nutrients such as potassium, calcium, and magnesium into the soil solution. Therefore, biochar amendments have the potential in ameliorating salt stress and enhancing tomato production.
Highlights
Water shortage represents a serious risk to global food security[1,2,3]
In 2014 and 2015, Soil organic matter (SOM) for I0B1 was 2.7 ± 0.08 and 2.71 ± 0.07 g kg−1, and these increased to, respectively 3.67 ± 0.69 and 4.10 ± 0.82 g kg−1 in I0B4 when the soil amended with 8% biochar
The results indicated a significant decrease in soil Bulk density (Bd), and an increase in SWC, field capacity (FC), permanent wilting point (PWP), and Available water content (AWC) in the biochar-amended soils, even at the low biochar application rate, under both SW and non-SW irrigation treatments (Fig. 1)
Summary
Water shortage represents a serious risk to global food security[1,2,3]. The total global water withdrawal for agricultural, domestic and industrial use is expected to increase by 23% from 1995 to 20254. Researchers have employed methods to improve plant salt tolerance, including inoculating seeds with halotolerant plant-growth-promoting rhizobacteria, using plant growth regulators and developing salt resistant cultivars[13,14,15] These approaches can be unprofitable, limited by the high costs and labor-consuming requirements of that are involved in order to counter the salinization problems. A few researches had been done to evaluate/ investigate the potential of biochar amendment (BA) in reducing the soil soluble salt under saline water (SW) irrigation as well as enhancing fruit quality. The aims of this study were to investigate 1) the effects of wheat straw biochar soil amendment under SW irrigation on growth as well as physiology, yield, fruit quality of tomato; 2) the capability of BA to alleviate salt stress
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