Biochar effects on nitrogen and phosphorus use efficiencies of zucchini plants grown in a calcareous sandy soil

Abstract

Biochar (B) application to sandy soils improves its productivity and mitigates climate change. A pot experiment was conducted to investigate the potential effects of maize stalks biochar applied to a zucchini (Cucurbita pepo L. var. Hybrid fadwa) grown on a calcareous sandy soil. Plastic pots were filed with three kilograms of the stud- . The pots were planted with zucchini plants and designed in a complete randomized design with three replications. Amending the soil with the biochar significantly increased the soil organic matter, fresh fruit yield, nitrogen use effiency (NUE) and agronomic efficiency of applied nitrogen (AE N ) of zucchini plants. Biochar additions improved the fresh fruits by 26.7, 55, and 195.0% for B 1 , B 2 and B 3 treatments respectively, over the control. The NUE of the plants increased owing to the application of biochar to the soil from 69.2 mg fruit/mg N at the control treatment to 77.1, 84.3 and 131.4 mg fruit/mg N for B 1 , B 2 and B 3 treatments, respectively. So, it is recommended to apply biochar as an amendment to the calcareous sandy soil in order to improve its fertility.

Biochar Triggers Systemic Tolerance Against Cobalt Stress in Wheat Leaves Through Regulation of Water Status and Antioxidant Metabolism

“…On the other hand, BC application maintained high levels of chlorophyll fluorescence (F v /F m ) in stress-treated wheat, as compared to stress treatment alone. The elevated F v /F m might be a possible reason for increased chlorophyll content, reduction in ROS levels which induced the degradation of chlorophyll, and enhanced level of N in leaves as correlated with the findings of Akhtar et al (2015), Younis et al (2016), and Amin and Eissa (2017).…”

“…Besides, under stress conditions (such as water, drought, and salt stress), there is an improvement on photosynthetic apparatus, water-use efficiency, and crop productivity in BC-applied plants such as tomato, maize, and milk thistle (Akhtar et al 2014;Haider et al 2015;Keshavarz Afshar et al 2016;Paneque et al 2016). Also, under heavy metal stress, depending on its ability to absorb and mobility of metals to plants from contaminated soils, BC is suitable as an adsorbent to eliminate of toxicity (Kim et al 2016;Amin and Eissa 2017). However, under the accumulation of toxic metals, little is known about the interaction of BC and antioxidant systems as well as the effects on the uptake of some beneficial nutrients for plant cells.…”

Response in Physicochemical Properties of Tobacco-Growing Soils and N/P/K Accumulation in Tobacco Plant to Tobacco Straw Biochar

“…Besides, the soil water holding capacity, nutrient retention, soil structure, soil organic carbon sequestration, and cation exchange capacity were all increased after biochar application (Pereira et al 2015;Xu et al 2014;Zhang et al 2015). In addition, nitrogen/phosphorus use efficiencies of grain and zucchini plants were enhanced by biochar (Amin and Eissa 2017;Sun et al 2019b). However, drawbacks of soil application of biochar were also reported.…”

Heavy metals uptake and translocation by lettuce and spinach grown on a metal-contaminated soil

“…Similar results were found by Eissa (2016) and Eissa et al (2014). The higher rate of the TF values in the case of Zn and Cu may be due to they are essential micronutrients (Marschner, 1995;Amin and Eissa, 2017) while Pb, Cd and Ni are toxic metals. The plants tend to accumulate the heavy metal in the roots and transfer a few concentrations to the shoots (Wozny, 1995); Voutsa et al, 1996;Verdejo et al, 2016).…”