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Biochar nutrient availability rather than its water holding capacity governs the growth of both C3 and C4 plants

  • Soils, Sec 1 • Soil Organic Matter Dynamics and Nutrient Cycling • Research Article
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose

Biochar has been suggested as a soil conditioner to improve soil fertility and crop productivity while simultaneously mitigate global climate change by storing carbon in the soil. This study investigated the effect of pine (Pinus radiata) biochar application on soil water availability, nitrogen (N) and carbon (C) pools and growth of C3 and C4 plants.

Materials and methods

In a glasshouse pot trial, a pine biochar (untreated) and nutrient-enriched pine biochar were applied to a market garden soil with C3 (Spinacia oleracea L.) and C4 (Amaranthus paniculatus L.) plants at rates of 0, 1.0, 2.0, and 4.0 % (w/w). Plant biomass, soil pH, moisture content, water holding capacity (WHC), hot water extractable organic C (HWEOC), and total N (HWETN), total C and N, and their isotope compositions (δ 13C and δ 15N) of soils and plants were measured at the end of the experimentation.

Results and discussion

The soil moisture content increased while plant biomass decreased with increasing untreated biochar application rates. The addition of nutrient-enriched biochar significantly improved plant biomass in comparison to the untreated biochar addition at most application rates. Biochar application also increased the levels of labile organic C and N pools as indicated by HWEOC and HWETN.

Conclusions

The results suggested that the addition of pine biochar significantly improved soil water availability but not plant growth. The application of nutrient-enriched pine biochar demonstrated that the growth of C3 and C4 plants was governed by biochar nutrient availability rather than its water holding capacity under the pot trial condition.

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Acknowledgments

This research was funded by the Australian Research Council under the ARC Linkage Project Scheme (ARC Linkage Project LP100200135), with BHP Billiton Iron Ore Pty Ltd, ANSAC Pty Ltd and ENN as the partner organizations. The authors are grateful to Dr Kai Zeng, Jianbo Wang, Geoffrey Lambert, Rene Diocares, and Carolyn Polson for their technical assistance. We also thank Dr Chengyuan Xu for his valuable comments on this manuscript. Yuzhe Wang also acknowledges Professor Qixing Zhou as his PhD supervisor at his home institution, Nankai University and the scholarship provided by the China Scholarship Council (CSC) to visit Australia as a visiting PhD student.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Futures Research Institute, School of Natural Sciences, Griffith University, 170 Kessels Road, Nathan, QLD, 4111, Australia

    Yuzhe Wang & Zhihong Xu

  2. Centre for Energy (M473), School of Mechanical and Chemical Engineering (M050), The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA, 6009, Australia

    Lianwei Zhang, Hong Yang & Dongke Zhang

  3. School of Plant Biology, Faculty of Science and The UWA Institute of Agriculture, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA, 6009, Australia

    Guijun Yan

  4. Environmental Futures Research Institute, Griffith School of Environment, Griffith University, 170 Kessels Road, Nathan, QLD, 4111, Australia

    Chengrong Chen

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  1. Yuzhe Wang
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Correspondence to Yuzhe Wang.

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Responsible editor: Jianming Xu

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Wang, Y., Zhang, L., Yang, H. et al. Biochar nutrient availability rather than its water holding capacity governs the growth of both C3 and C4 plants. J Soils Sediments 16, 801–810 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-016-1357-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-016-1357-x

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