Impacts of Bamboo Biochar Amendment on Growth, Morphological Traits, and Biomass Allocation of Bambusa balcooa under Copper-Contaminated Soil Conditions

Abstract

The accumulation of heavy metals in water streams and soil is considered a grave environmental threat that impacts plants and animals. Biochar has recently been widely used to overcome the effects of heavy metal contamination in plants and remediate the soil. A pot-trial study assessed the morphological traits of Bambusa balcooa under copper contamination. Each pot (twenty-four earthen pots) was filled with 7.0 kg of soil and spiked with copper sulfate of 0, 300, 600, and 1200 mg kg-1. Of the total, twelve pots were amended with 7% (w/w of soil) bamboo biochar. Plant samples were harvested after one year (365 days) of treatment for biomass estimation. Data was recorded for different growth and morphological traits such as the number of clums, nodes, leaves, internode length, plant height, leaf area, root length, and dry biomass of root, shoot, and leaf to evaluate the impact of copper with or without bamboo biochar on Bambusa balcooa. The results indicated that the higher concentration of copper suppressed growth parameters such as shoot length, internode length, number of leaves, and leaf area; therefore, growth increment was significantly reduced at ) mg Kg‑1 copper-added soil. Biochar diminishes the impact of Cu stress on plants to some extent as at higher concentrations (600 and 1200 mg kg-1) was enhanced root dry biomass (51 and 148%), shoot dry biomass (42 and 57%), and leaf dry biomass (38 and 48%). Thus, results confirm that biochar amendment under Bambusa balcooa reduces the impact of copper contamination on the plant and increases plant growth by improving soil health, suggesting that bamboo biochar application was effective in metal stabilization, thereby, reducing the bioavailability and phytotoxicity of Cu and can help to restore copper-contaminated soil.