Biochar influences on agricultural soils, crop production, and the environment: A review

Abstract

Given its high pore volume and adsorption capacity, and when applied as an agricultural soil amendment, its ability to enhance the soil’s nutrient- and water- holding capacities, biochar has become a focus of research interest. In most applications, crop productivity is significantly increased after agricultural soils are amended with biochar. In addition to increasing soil quality, the biochar amendments sequester carbon within the soil. However, the long-term effects of amending agricultural soils with biochar are difficult to predict, because the mechanisms behind the increase in productivity of biochar amended soils are not yet fully understood. Long-term detrimental effects on soil and the environment can occur if biochar is applied haphazardly. Current knowledge and the additional experimental work required to thoroughly understand the influence of biochar amendment on the behavior of agricultural soils processes are reviewed. Further, studies on the post production processing of biochar are discussed in the context of the possible engineering of biochar for particular states of soil degradation.