Abstract
China with large area of land planted with crops are suffering secondary salinization in coastal area for the lack of fresh water and saltwater intrusion to the groundwater. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of biochar (BC) and fulvic acid (FA) on the amelioration of coastal saline soil and their impact on crop yields under maize-barley rotation system. A three year field experiment was conducted in a saline soil on a farm in coastal area of east Jiangsu Province, China. A maize-barley rotation system had been carried out for ten years with local conventional management before the experiment. The saline soil was amended with BC at rates of 0, 7.5 t ha−1 (BC1), 15 t ha−1 (BC2) and 30 t ha−1 (BC3) alone or combined with fulvic acid (1.5 t ha−1) compared with control. Fertilizers were applied under normal planting strategies. The BC was added only once during the four growing seasons, and the FA was applied before each sowing. Soil salinity changed significantly during the three year field experiment. This was mainly due to the great quantity of rain during the period of maize cultivation. Although Na+, Cl− and SO42− in BC and /or FA treatments significantly decreased, the pH value increased up to 9.0 as the CO32− + HCO3−content increased. Total organic carbon (TOC) and phosphorus (TP) responded positively to biochar addition rate. BC applied with appropriate rate at 15 t ha−1 (BC2) in combination with FA showed optimal effects on soil salinity amelioration, soil physics properties regulation, soil nutrition improvement and crop yields increase. The TOC and TP was 5.2 g kg−1 and 507 mg kg−1 in BC2 + FA treatment, which were lower than BC3 and BC3 + FA treatments. However, the highest total grain yield was obtained in the BC2 + FA treatment, and the total yield was increased by 62.9% over the CK. This study emphasizes that using combined organic amendment of BC with FA for profitable and sustainable use of salt-affected soils would be practicable.
Highlights
China with large area of land planted with crops are suffering secondary salinization in coastal area for the lack of fresh water and saltwater intrusion to the groundwater
Though in general the soil EC was decreased at depth of 20–40 cm in the season 1 and season 3, only fulvic acid (FA), BC3 and BC3 + FA treatments decreased EC significantly (P < 0.05) compared with CK (Fig. 2)
The current study demonstrated that combined amendment of BC and FA significantly improved both the physical and chemical conditions of the salt-affected soil and increasing crop yields in a maize-barley rotation system
Summary
China with large area of land planted with crops are suffering secondary salinization in coastal area for the lack of fresh water and saltwater intrusion to the groundwater. In the coastal area of Jiangsu Province, eastern China, the reclaimed tidal flat is approximately 2 million hectares, and the land area is gradually increasing at a rate of 1300 hectares every year[4]. Addition of organic materials; such as crop residue, compost, humic acid and biochar have been reported to improve the soil quality of reclaimed tidal land soil[4,16,17,18,19,20]. The pathogens remained in plant residues and compost may cause a variety of crop diseases[21,22], which makes it difficult to take advantage of it for a long time This two kinds of materials decomposed quickly in soil[23], and the character of short-term carbon sequestration would be adverse to climate mitigation. Biochar addition can reduce soil salt stress through sorption[26], and it can improving nutrition availability[27,28]
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