ABSTRACTIn many areas of the world, leaching of phosphorus in the soil causes serious water pollution. The purpose of this research was to decrease the phosphorus loss in soil by the adsorption behavior of biochars with special structural characteristics. In this study, a series of analysis methods including scanning electron microscopy, infrared spectroscopy, elemental composition, thermogravimetric, and X-ray diffractometer analysis have been used to investigate the properties and structures of different sources of biochars. The adsorption of phosphorus by maize-straw biochar, rice-hull biochar, and pine biochar was quantified by the balance method in this research. The results show that pine biochar has more structural and thermal stability than maize-straw biochar and rice-hull biochar. Different sources of biochar have significantly different phosphate adsorption capabilities. Pine biochar has the best phosphorus adsorption capacity; the actual maximum adsorption capacity was 13.898 mg g−1; however, the phosphorus adsorption capacity of maize-straw biochar was minimum, the actual maximum adsorption capacity was 8.809 mg g−1. The volume of phosphorus adsorption on biochars increases with increasing concentration of phosphorus added to the solution, but the rate of increase gradually decreases. The phosphorus adsorption curve agreed well with the Langmuir isotherm equation.