Does Biochar Addition Influence the Change Points of Soil Phosphorus Leaching?

Abstract

Phosphorus change point indicating the threshold related to P leaching, largely depends on soil properties. Increasing data have shown that biochar addition can improve soil retention capacity of ions. However, we have known little about weather biochar amendment influence the change point of P leaching. In this study, two soils added with 0, 5, 10, 20, and 50 g biochar kg−1 were incubated at 25°C for 14 d following adjusting the soil moisture to 50% water-holding capacity (WHC). The soils with different available P values were then obtained by adding a series of KH2PO4 solution (ranging from 0 to 600 mg P kg−1 soil), and subjecting to three cycles of drying and rewetting. The results showed that biochar addition significantly lifted the P change points in the tested soils, together with changes in soil pH, organic C, Olen-P and CaCl2-P but little on exchangeable Ca and Mg, oxalate-extractable Fe and Al. The Olsen-P at the change points ranged from 48.65 to 185.07 mg kg−1 in the alluvial soil and 71.25 to 98.65 mg kg−1 in the red soil, corresponding to CaCl2-P of 0.31–6.49 and 0.18–0.45 mg L−1, respectively. The change points of the alluvial soil were readily changed by adding biochar compared with that of the red soil. The enhancement of change points was likely to be explained as the improvement of phosphate retention ability in the biochar-added soils.