Effects of Biochar on Chemical Properties of Three Types of Soil and Nutrient Uptake of Maize under Drought Stress

Thihuong Nguyen,Nhutrung Luc,Cheng Liu,Yanan Tong

doi:10.19026/ajfst.9.1962

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the effects of biochar on the chemical properties of three types of soils and the nutrient uptake and yield of the maize plant grown on the soils. The experimental results are as follows: (i) In Loess soil, when the biochar application rate was 15 t/ha, the soil chemical properties was barely improved, but the nutrient uptake of maize was obviously improved. The amount of biochar application was at 30 t/ha, the result was just on the contrary and 60 t/ha application of biochar performed a poor effect on the soil chemical properties as well as on the nutrient uptake of maize. (ii) In sandy soil, when the application of biochar reached to 15 t/ha, there were not remarkable effects on soil chemical properties and moderate promoting effect on nutrient uptake of maize. Additionally, the biochar application at a rate of 30 t/ha led to a small effect on the both, but 60 t/ha amount made a significant improvement in both. (iii) In loessal soil, applying 15 t/ha biochar to soil had a moderate effect on chemical properties' improvement, but the promotional effect on nutrient uptake of maize is poor. When the amount of biochar application was at 30 t/ha, soil chemical properties were significantly improved but the effect on nutrient uptake of maize was moderate. However, 60 t/ha biochar application obviously improved nutrient uptake of maize, but the effect of chemical properties improvement was poor.

Highlights

Biochar is a kind of carbon mixture got through pyrolysis and carbonization of organic matter under hypoxia circumstance, with highly aromatic components, good biochemistry and thermal stability
As research subjects, this paper studies the effects of biochar on three types of soils’ chemical properties and on the nutrient uptake and yield of the maize planted in theses soils
Effects of biochar application on three types of soils chemical properties under drought stress: Under drought treatment (Table 3), the content of organic matter and total P in loess soil was significantly decreased compared with control sample

Summary

Introduction

Biochar is a kind of carbon mixture got through pyrolysis and carbonization of organic matter under hypoxia circumstance, with highly aromatic components, good biochemistry and thermal stability. There were many researches pointed out that biochar has positive effects on soil properties improvement and crop nutrient uptake capacity and crop yeild (Liu et al, 2012; Major et al, 2009). Most of researches about the soil improvement and yield increasing effects were conducted under suitable environment and a small number of researches about the biochar effects on soil properties and plant growth were conducted under stress environment. Soil properties have significant effects on biochar function (Laird et al, 2010; Lehmann and Joseph, 2009; Schulz and Glaser, 2012), there is a wide spread dispute on its effects on soil improvement and crop yield. The effects of applying biochar to different areas should be further studied

Methods

Results

Conclusion