Application of biochars to sandy and silty soil failed to increase maize yield under common agricultural practice

Borchard, Nils; Siemens, Jan; Ladd, Brenton; Möller, Andreas; Amelung, Wulf

doi:10.1016/j.still.2014.07.016

Cited by 158 publications

(91 citation statements)

References 69 publications

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“…They found that applying 15 or 20 t ha −1 of biochar significantly increased corn grain yield by 150 or 88 %, respectively, when compare to an untreated control. On the other hand, some studies have reported no increases in crop yield following biochar application [35][36][37]. For example, Martinsen et al reported that biochars created from maize (Zea mays, L.) cob or groundnut (Arachis hypogaea) did not affect maize yields.…”

Section: Crop Productivitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Soil Health, Crop Productivity, Microbial Transport, and Mine Spoil Response to Biochars

et al. 2016

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Biochars vary widely in pH, surface area, nutrient concentration, porosity, and metal binding capacity due to the assortment of feedstock materials and thermal conversion conditions under which it is formed. The wide variety of chemical and physical characteristics have resulted in biochar being used as an amendment to rebuild soil health, improve crop yields, increase soil water storage, and restore soils/spoils impacted by mining. Meta-analysis of the biochar literature has shown mixed results when using biochar as a soil amendment to improve crop productivity. For example, in one meta-analysis, biochar increased crop yield by approximately 10 %, while in another, approximately 50 % of the studies reported minimal to no crop yield increases. In spite of the mixed crop yield reports, biochars have properties that can improve soil health characteristics, by increasing carbon (C) sequestration and nutrient and water retention. Biochars also have the ability to bind enteric microbes and enhance metal binding in soils impacted by mining. In this review, we present examples of both effective and ineffective uses of biochar to improve soil health for agricultural functions and reclamation of degraded mine spoils. Biochars are expensive to manufacture and cannot be purged from soil after application, so for efficient use, they should be targeted for specific uses in agricultural and environmental sectors. Thus, we introduce the designer biochar concept as an alternate paradigm stating that biochars should be designed with properties that are tailored to specific soil deficiencies or problems. We then demonstrate how careful selection of biochars can increase their effectiveness as a soil amendment.

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Section: Crop Productivitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Soil Health, Crop Productivity, Microbial Transport, and Mine Spoil Response to Biochars

et al. 2016

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“…On the contrary, some researchers suggested that the biochar-amended soil did not promote plant yields, even decreased the productivity at a higher dosage or with some different feedstock, neither in pot nor site experiment [16,[21][22][23][24][25]. For example, Rajkovich et al [26] carried out a greenhouse pot trial and suggested that animal manure biochar and food waste biochar decreased the yield of corn at a high dosage (7%), while lower rates (2%, 0.5%) of biochar could increase the yield.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

A Field Experiment on Enhancement of Crop Yield by Rice Straw and Corn Stalk-Derived Biochar in Northern China

Yang

Zhao

et al. 2015

Sustainability

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Biochar, a green way to deal with burning and burying biomass, has attracted more attention in recent years. To fill the gap of the effects of different biochar on crop yield in Northern China, the first field experiment was conducted in farmland located in Hebei Province. Biochars derived from two kinds of feedstocks (rice straw and corn stalk) were added into an Inceptisols area with different dosages (1 ton/ha, 2 ton/ha or 4 ton/ha) in April 2014. The crop yields were collected for corn, peanut, and sweet potato during one crop season from spring to autumn 2014, and the wheat from winter 2014 to summer 2015, respectively. The results showed biochar amendment could enhance yields, and biochar from rice straw showed a more positive effect on the yield of corn, peanut, and winter wheat than corn stalk biochar. The dosage of biochar of 2 ton/ha or 1 ton/ha could enhance the yield by 5%-15% and biochar of 4 ton/ha could increase the yield by about 20%. The properties of N/P/K, CEC, and pH of soils amended with biochar were not changed, while biochar effects could be related to improvement of soil water content.

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“…agricultural emissions of CH 4 and N 2 O (IPCC 2013). Although it is clear that biochar can reduce emissions of GHGs (Cayuela et al 2014;Borchard et al 2014c), stabilize labile organic matter (Borchard et al 2014a) and remain in agricultural soils for at least decades (Preston and Schmidt 2006;Borchard et al 2014b) contradictory findings (Wardle et al 2008;Borchard et al 2014c;Zimmermann et al 2012) elucidate needs to assess mechanisms controlling GHG emissions in more detail across varying environments and climatic zones (Schmidt et al 2011). …”

Section: Influence Of Ghg Emission On Biochar Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biochar research activities and their relation to development and environmental quality. A meta-analysis

Mehmood

García

Schirrmann

et al. 2017

Agron. Sustain. Dev.

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Application of biochars to sandy and silty soil failed to increase maize yield under common agricultural practice

Cited by 158 publications

References 69 publications

Soil Health, Crop Productivity, Microbial Transport, and Mine Spoil Response to Biochars

Soil Health, Crop Productivity, Microbial Transport, and Mine Spoil Response to Biochars

A Field Experiment on Enhancement of Crop Yield by Rice Straw and Corn Stalk-Derived Biochar in Northern China

Biochar research activities and their relation to development and environmental quality. A meta-analysis

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