Impact of Biochar on Physicochemical Properties of Haplic Luvisol Soil under Different Land Use: A Plot Experiment

Abstract

There is limited information regarding the effect of biochar (BioC) on improving the fertility of degraded soils (fallow and grassland), particularly with respect to changes with time. The objective of the study was to evaluate, in a three-year field experiment, the influence of BioC on the physicochemical properties of Haplic Luvisol. BioC, obtained via wood waste pyrolysis at 650 °C, was applied to the soil of subplots under fallow and grassland at rates of 0, 1, 2, and 3 kg·m−2. Soil samples were collected eight times, from 2013 to 2015. Physicochemical characterization was performed for soil and BioC by analyzing density, pH, surface charge, as well as ash and organic carbon content. BioC’s influence on the physicochemical properties of degraded soils was determined by analyzing the changes in pH, specific surface area, radius, and volume of the micropore. The addition of BioC affected analyzed soils to varying degrees. In the case of the fallow, a positive effect on changes in these parameters was observed, particularly at the highest biochar dose and for the last year of the experiment. However, for the grassland, in most cases we observed the opposite trend—for example, pH and specific surface area values decreased with increasing biochar dose. We believe that it is necessary to examine how BioC affects sorption properties of organic matter of fallow and grassland soils, as well as the BioC’s influence on humic acids of these soils as a function on BioC dose and function of time.

The influence of biochar on the content of carbon and the chemical transformations of fallow and grassland humic acids

“…The Q HA at pH 9.0 values of HAs isolated from pure BioC were lower than those obtained from the soil, and moreover, BioC did not have an obvious effect on the Q HA values of the soil HAs. Previous studies 4 on impact of BioC on the physicochemical properties of Haplic Luvisol under different land uses, showed that BioC added to soil caused a significant increase in Q values in the last year of the experiment. Thus, we can conclude that BioC introduced OM with a variable surface charge but did not affect the soil’s Q HA .…”

“…The properties of soils and BioC, such as the d, C org , A, pH, and Q, were presented in detail previously 4 . Briefly, soils were characterised by a typical d value for mineral soils ≈ 2.60 g cm −3 , and by a relatively low content of C org and a high content of A.…”

“…Moreover, agriculture is strongly evolving towards sustainable systems and organic farming, thus it is necessary to seek solutions that will not influence soil conditions in a negative manner (e.g. by chemical or physical degradation) 4 . The answer to this problem could be biochar (BioC)—a solid carbon-rich product generated during waste biomass pyrolysis in a strongly reduced oxygen atmosphere 5 , 6 , which is intended to improve the quality and fertility of soils.…”

“…This distinguishes it from similar substances like charcoal, which is primarily intended for energy use. Research on the impact of BioC on the physicochemical properties of Haplic Luvisol soil showed that the addition of BioC to fallow and grassland influenced the dynamics of changes in the physiochemical parameters of the examined soils 4 .…”

Introduksi Teknologi Biochar Untuk Memperbaiki Lahan Kritis Milik Petani Wilayah Magersari Di Kabupaten Tuban, Propinsi Jawa Timur

“…Penggunaan biochar dapat memperbaiki sifat tanah dan ketersediaan unsur hara tanah dalam jangka panjang (Agegnehu et al, 2017). Penggunaan biochar dapat meningkatkan produktivitas tanah melalui perbaikan sifat fisika, kimia (Aslam et al, 2014), (Jien & Wang, 2013), (Li et al, 2018), (Mukherjee & Lal, 2013), (Shaaban et al, 2018), (Wu et al, 2017), biologi tanah (Hussain et al, 2017) dan perbaikan struktur tanah (Bista et al, 2019), (Cybulak et al, 2019) serta porositas tanah (Huang et al, 2020), (Liu et al, 2018). Aplikasi biochar sangat penting untuk meningkatkan sifat fisik dan kimia tanah asam (Dume et al, 2015).…”