Abstract
Sustainable management of phosphorus (P) is one of the burning issues in agriculture because the reported P losses, when applied in the form of mineral fertilizer, give rise to another issue of water pollution as P is considered one of the limiting nutrients for eutrophication and so results in costly water treatments. In the present study, the enrichment of biochar with mineral P fertilizer was supposed to reduce such losses from the soil. Additionally, P can also be recycled through this technique at the same time as biochar is derived from biomass. Biochar was prepared using wheat straw followed by its enrichment with di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) at the ratio of 1:1 on a w/w basis. The first pot trial for spring maize (cv. Neelam) was conducted using phosphorus-enriched biochar (PEB) at 0% and 1% with different levels of recommended P (0%, 25%, 50%, and 100%). The treatments were arranged factorially under a complete randomized design (CRD) with three replications. After harvesting the spring maize, pots were kept undisturbed, and a second pot trial was conducted for autumn maize in the same pots to assess the residual impact of 1% PEB. In the second pot trial, only inorganic P was applied to respective treatments because the pots contained 1% PEB supplied to spring maize. The results revealed that the application of 1% PEB at P level 50% significantly increased all the recorded plant traits (growth, yield, and physiological and chemical parameters) and some selected properties of post-harvest soil (available P, organic matter, and EC) but not soil pH. In terms of yield, 1% PEB at 50% P significantly increased both the number of grains and 100-grain weight by around 30% and 21% in spring and autumn maize, respectively, as compared to 100% P without PEB. It is therefore recommended that P-enriched biochar should be used to reduce the inorganic P fertilizer inputs; however, its application under field conditions should be assessed in future research.
Highlights
Sustainable soil management is one of the crucial challenges as it plays several important functions in the ecosystem besides providing food, fibre, and shelter
The burning of biomass is aggravating the phenomena of climate change as it emits nitrogenous oxide (NOx ), carbon monoxide (COx ), sulfur oxide (SOx ), particulate matter (PM), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs ), and volatile organic compounds (VOCs ) [3,4]
The results indicated that soil properties and plant traits were significantly influenced by 1% phosphorus-enriched biochar (PEB) at the level of 50% P in the spring maize
Summary
Sustainable soil management is one of the crucial challenges as it plays several important functions in the ecosystem besides providing food, fibre, and shelter. From the life in Sustainability 2022, 14, 1987. Sustainability 2022, 14, 1987 water bodies to the atmospheric composition of gasses, the soil plays a significant role in deciding what enters or leaves these systems. Excessive use of phosphorus (P) in agriculture is one of the leading causes of eutrophication in aquatic environments, giving rise to algal blooms which eventually harm aquatic life [1,2]. Future practices should be devised while considering their implications on the environment in the long run. This is especially true for agricultural soils in order to ensure future food security
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