A quantitative evaluation of the biochar’s influence on plant disease suppress: a global meta-analysis

Abstract

Numerous studies have demonstrated that soil applications of biochar contribute to plant disease suppression and growth promotion. Here, we quantitatively evaluated the performance of biochars on plant disease suppression and production using meta-analysis of literature data. The results indicated that biochar amendment dramatically reduced disease severity (DS) by 47.46% while increasing plant biomass by 44.05%. The highest disease suppression was achieved with soil application of straw-derived biochar compared to biochar from other feedstocks, while no significant increase in yield was found with straw-derived biochar. Biochars pyrolyzed at medium temperatures (350–600 °C) facilitate both disease controlling and growth promotion. Soil application of biochars between 3 and 5% significantly decreased plant DS by 59.11%, and inverted U-shaped biochar dose/DS suppression curve and biochar dose/growth curve were observed. In cash crop fields, the DS of plants amended with biochar was reduced over 50%, which was significantly higher than that of grain crops and perennial trees. Furthermore, biochar performance on plant disease suppression was higher for airborne pathogens than for soilborne pathogens, possibly due to the systemic activation of plant defences by biochar amendment. Additionally, a reduction of DS by biochar was observed on plants grown in agricultural soils. Our work contributes to the standardization of biochar production and provides a reference for improving the function of biochar in disease control. Graphical Abstract

Biochar-Soil-Plant interactions: A cross talk for sustainable agriculture under changing climate

“…The growth and yield of Chenopodium quinoa and lettuce were enhanced by 300% in a hostile loam-sandy soil treated with 2% biochar (Trupiano et al, 2017). Luigi et al (2022) showed that biochar seems to promote the development of the tomato seedlings, especially at concentrations ranging from 1% to 20% (w/w with peat) without showing any antimicrobial effects on the beneficial soil bacteria at the tomato rhizosphere level and even improving their growth, because the application of biochar enhanced the soil pH as well as the retention of both the soil water and nutrients (Yang et al, 2022). Biochar ameliorated substrate characteristics (available N increase of 17% and total C increase 13%), resulting in a promotion effect on plant root, shoot, and leaf morphology, the biochar-treated plants had a greater number of leaves (38 and 68 at the vegetative and fruit stages, respectively) than the untreated plants (32 and 49, respectively).…”

Biochar for the Control of Plant Pathogens

“…However, the biocontrol effect of biochar on plant diseases was found to vary with the source material (biomass or agro waste) used for making the biochar, the pyrolysis process and the quantity applied to the soil/crops. A recent meta-analysis of the available literature about biochar and its influence on plant pathogen/disease revealed that biochar made with temperatures ranging from 350-600°C was found to have better disease suppression and growth promotion in plants (Yang et al, 2022). Application of 3-5% of biochar was found to decrease diseases by 59%.…”

Biochar-extracted liquor stimulates nitrogen related gene expression on improving nitrogen utilization in rice seedling

“…Recent studies had shown that biochar-extract liquor as a DOM (dissolvable organic matter) fraction had been known of a composition of organic compounds as biopolymers, humics, building blocks, low molecular weight acids, and low molecular weight neutrals as well as hydrophobic organic carbon ( Lou et al., 2015 ; Bian et al., 2019 ). Further, labile organic molecules from fast pyrolysis of rice husk are beneficial to improve plant metabolic processes, which directly affect the related gene and protein expression ( Yuan et al., 2017 ; E et al., 2019 ; Yang et al., 2022 ). Several organic matters of biochar including 2-Acetyl-5-methylfuran have been reported to affect the plant growth and development ( E et al., 2019 ).…”