scholarly journals Biochar - A Panacea for Agriculture or Just Carbon?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elvir Tenic ◽  
Rishikesh Ghogare ◽  
Amit Dhingra
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Soil Health ◽  
Nutrient Status ◽  
Crop Productivity ◽  
Field Application ◽  
Arable Soils ◽  
Marginal Soils ◽  
Decomposition Of Organic Matter

The sustainable production of food faces formidable challenges. Foremost is the availability of arable soils, which have been ravaged by the overuse of fertilizers and detrimental soil management techniques. As such, maintenance of soil quality, and reclamation of marginal soils, has become an increasingly important endeavor. Recently, there has been emerging interest in the use of biochar, a carbon rich, porous material thought to improve various aspects of soil performance. Biochar (BC) is produced through the thermochemical decomposition of organic matter at high temperature in an oxygen limited environment, in a process known as pyrolysis. Importantly, the source of organic material, or ‘feedstock,’ used in this process and different parameters of pyrolysis, especially temperature, determine the chemical and physical properties of biochar. Incorporation of BC impacts soil-water relations, tilth and nutrient status, pH, soil organic matter (SOM), and microbial activity. Soil amendment with BC has been shown to have an overall positive impact on soil health and crop productivity; however, initial soil properties need to be considered prior to the application of BC. There is an urgent need to understand the effects of long-term field application of BC and how it influences the soil microcosm. This knowledge will facilitate predictable enhancement of crop productivity and meaningful carbon sequestration.

scholarly journals Biochar—A Panacea for Agriculture or Just Carbon?

Horticulturae ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 37
Author(s):  
Elvir Tenic ◽  
Rishikesh Ghogare ◽  
Amit Dhingra
Keyword(s):  
Soil Properties ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Soil Health ◽  
Crop Productivity ◽  
Field Application ◽  
Arable Soils ◽  
Research Areas ◽  
Marginal Soils ◽  
Decomposition Of Organic Matter

The sustainable production of food faces formidable challenges. Foremost is the availability of arable soils, which have been ravaged by the overuse of fertilizers and detrimental soil management techniques. The maintenance of soil quality and reclamation of marginal soils are urgent priorities. The use of biochar, a carbon-rich, porous material thought to improve various soil properties, is gaining interest. Biochar (BC) is produced through the thermochemical decomposition of organic matter in a process known as pyrolysis. Importantly, the source of organic material, or ‘feedstock’, used in this process and different parameters of pyrolysis determine the chemical and physical properties of biochar. The incorporation of BC impacts soil–water relations and soil health, and it has been shown to have an overall positive impact on crop yield; however, pre-existing physical, chemical, and biological soil properties influence the outcome. The effects of long-term field application of BC and how it influences the soil microcosm also need to be understood. This literature review, including a focused meta-analysis, summarizes the key outcomes of BC studies and identifies critical research areas for future investigations. This knowledge will facilitate the predictable enhancement of crop productivity and meaningful carbon sequestration.

scholarly journals Impact of Rubber Leaf Vermicompost on Tea (Camellia sinensis) Yield and Earthworm Population in West Tripura (India)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Priyasankar Chaudhuri ◽  
Singh Kwrak Santua Jamatia
Keyword(s):  
Block Design ◽  
Soil Health ◽  
Crop Productivity ◽  
Field Application ◽  
Tea Plantation ◽  
Random Block ◽  
Earthworm Population ◽  
Random Block Design ◽  
Set Up

Background: Vermicompost is a manure produced from organic waste through the activity of epigeic earthworms and microbes. Excessive use of chemical fertilizers for long term to increase the crop productivity have led to deterioration of soil health. Therefore, to assess the effect of vermicompost, as an alternative option to chemical fertilizer, on tea yield and earthworm population, field application of vermicompost on tea plantation was carried out for a period of two years (2015-2016) in Harishnagar Tea Estate, West Tripura, India. Methods: The experimental plot (25 sq. m) was set up using a random block design with 4 different rates of vermicompost viz. T0 (Control), T1 (5 t ha-1 year-1), T2 (10 t ha-1 year-1) and T3 (15 t ha-1 year-1) each having five replications. Composite soil samples were collected at the beginning and at the end of the experiment. Earthworms were also collected during the experimental period.Conclusion: Application of vermicompost significantly influenced the tea plantation soils, increased the tea yield along with earthworm population and was dependent on the vermicompost doses applied.

The impact of porosity on organic matter cycling in a two-dimensional porous medium 

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanbang Zou ◽  
Pelle Ohlsson ◽  
Edith Hammer
Keyword(s):  
Porous Medium ◽  
Organic Matter ◽  
Carbon Sequestration ◽  
Soil Carbon ◽  
Pore Network ◽  
Pore Scale ◽  
Decomposition Of Organic Matter ◽  
Organic Matter Cycling ◽  
The Impact

<p>Carbon sequestration has been a popular research topic in recent years as the rapid elevation of carbon emission has significantly impacted our climate. Apart from carbon capture and storage in e.g. oil reservoirs, soil carbon sequestration offers a long term and safe solution for the environment and human beings. The net soil carbon budget is determined by the balance between terrestrial ecosystem sink and sources of respiration to atmospheric carbon dioxide. Carbon can be long term stored as organic matters in the soil whereas it can be released from the decomposition of organic matter. The complex pore networks in the soil are believed to be able to "protect" microbial-derived organic matter from decomposition. Therefore, it is important to understand how soil structure impacts organic matter cycling at the pore scale. However, there are limited experimental studies on understanding the mechanism of physical stabilization of organic matter. Hence, my project plan is to create a heterogeneous microfluidic porous microenvironment to mimic the complex soil pore network which allows us to investigate the ability of organisms to access spaces starting from an initial ecophysiological precondition to changes of spatial accessibility mediated by interactions with the microbial community.</p><p>Microfluidics is a powerful tool that enables studies of fundamental physics, rapid measurements and real-time visualisation in a complex spatial microstructure that can be designed and controlled. Many complex processes can now be visualized enabled by the development of microfluidics and photolithography, such as microbial dynamics in pore-scale soil systems and pore network modification mimicking different soil environments – earlier considered impossible to achieve experimentally. The microfluidic channel used in this project contains a random distribution of cylindrical pillars of different sizes so as to mimic the variations found in real soil. The randomness in the design creates various spatial availability for microbes (preferential flow paths with dead-end or continuous flow) as an invasion of liquids proceeds into the pore with the lowest capillary entry pressure. In order to study the impact of different porosity in isolation of varying heterogeneity of the porous medium, different pore size chips that use the same randomly generated pore network is created. Those chips have the same location of the pillars, but the relative size of each pillar is scaled. The experiments will be carried out using sterile cultures of fluorescent bacteria, fungi and protists, synthetic communities of combinations of these, or a whole soil community inoculum. We will quantify the consumption of organic matter from the different areas via fluorescent substrates, and the bio-/necromass produced. We hypothesise that lower porosity will reduce the net decomposition of organic matter as the narrower pore throat limits the access, and that net decomposition rate at the main preferential path will be higher than inside branches</p>

scholarly journals Soil structure after 18 years of long-term different tillage systems and fertilisation in Haplic Luvisol

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (No. 3) ◽  
pp. 140-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Šimanský Vladimír ◽  
Lukáč Martin
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Soil Structure ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Crop Residues ◽  
Organic Matter Content ◽  
Matter Content ◽  
Soil Tillage ◽  
Arable Soils ◽  
Water Stable Aggregates

Soil structure is a key determinant of many soil environmental processes and is essential for supporting terrestrial ecosystem productivity. Management of arable soils plays a significant role in forming and maintaining their structure. Between 1994 and 2011, we studied the influence of soil tillage and fertilisation regimes on the stability of soil structure of loamy Haplic Luvisol in a replicated long-term field experiment in the Dolná Malanta locality (Slovakia). Soil samples were repeatedly collected from plots exposed to the following treatments: conventional tillage (CT) and minimum tillage (MT) combined with conventional (NPK) and crop residue-enhanced fertilisation (CR+NPK). MT resulted in an increase of critical soil organic matter content (St) by 7% in comparison with CT. Addition of crop residues and NPK fertilisers significantly increased St values (by 7%) in comparison with NPK-only treatments. Soil tillage and fertilisation did not have any significant impact on other parameters of soil structure such as dry sieving mean weight diameters (MWD), mean weight diameter of water-stable aggregates (MWD<sub>WSA</sub>), vulnerability coefficient (Kv), stability index of water-stable aggregates (Sw), index of crusting (Ic), contents of water-stable macro- (WSA<sub>ma</sub>) and micro-aggregates (WSA<sub>mi</sub>). Ic was correlated with organic matter content in all combinations of treatments. Surprisingly, humus quality did not interact with soil management practices to affect soil structure parameters. Higher sums of base cations, CEC and base saturation (Bs) were linked to higher Sw values, however higher values of hydrolytic acidity (Ha) resulted in lower aggregate stability in CT treatments. Higher content of K<sup>+</sup> was responsible for higher values of MWD<sub>WSA </sub>and MWD in CT. In MT, contents of Ca<sup>2+</sup>, Mg<sup>2+ </sup>and Na<sup>+</sup> were significantly correlated with contents of WSA<sub>mi </sub>and WSA<sub>ma</sub>. Higher contents of Na<sup>+</sup> negatively affected St values and positive correlations were detected between Ca<sup>2+</sup>, Mg<sup>2+ </sup>and Na<sup>+</sup> and Ic in NPK treatments.

Assessing the sustainability of wheat-based cropping systems using APSIM: model parameterisation and evaluation

2007 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carina Moeller ◽  
Mustafa Pala ◽  
Ahmad M. Manschadi ◽  
Holger Meinke ◽  
Joachim Sauerborn
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Soil Water ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Soil Depth ◽  
Crop Productivity ◽  
Water Dynamics ◽  
Soil Water Dynamics ◽  
Mineral N ◽  
N Use

Assessing the sustainability of crop and soil management practices in wheat-based rotations requires a well-tested model with the demonstrated ability to sensibly predict crop productivity and changes in the soil resource. The Agricultural Production Systems Simulator (APSIM) suite of models was parameterised and subsequently used to predict biomass production, yield, crop water and nitrogen (N) use, as well as long-term soil water and organic matter dynamics in wheat/chickpea systems at Tel Hadya, north-western Syria. The model satisfactorily simulated the productivity and water and N use of wheat and chickpea crops grown under different N and/or water supply levels in the 1998–99 and 1999–2000 experimental seasons. Analysis of soil-water dynamics showed that the 2-stage soil evaporation model in APSIM’s cascading water-balance module did not sufficiently explain the actual soil drying following crop harvest under conditions where unused water remained in the soil profile. This might have been related to evaporation from soil cracks in the montmorillonitic clay soil, a process not explicitly simulated by APSIM. Soil-water dynamics in wheat–fallow and wheat–chickpea rotations (1987–98) were nevertheless well simulated when the soil water content in 0–0.45 m soil depth was set to ‘air dry’ at the end of the growing season each year. The model satisfactorily simulated the amounts of NO3-N in the soil, whereas it underestimated the amounts of NH4-N. Ammonium fixation might be part of the soil mineral-N dynamics at the study site because montmorillonite is the major clay mineral. This process is not simulated by APSIM’s nitrogen module. APSIM was capable of predicting long-term trends (1985–98) in soil organic matter in wheat–fallow and wheat–chickpea rotations at Tel Hadya as reported in literature. Overall, results showed that the model is generic and mature enough to be extended to this set of environmental conditions and can therefore be applied to assess the sustainability of wheat–chickpea rotations at Tel Hadya.

scholarly journals Assessment of Chemical and Biological Parameters in Sorghum-Wheat Cropping Sequence under Long Term Fertilization - A Review

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jayalakshmi Mitnala
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Chemical Properties ◽  
Biological Properties ◽  
Organic Manure ◽  
Chemical Fertilizers ◽  
Physico Chemical ◽  
Decomposition Of Organic Matter ◽  
Continuous Use ◽  
Dynamic Population

Continuous addition of chemical fertilizers poses problems like toxicity due to high amounts of salts as residues of fertilizer and deterioration of the physico-chemical properties. Organic manure ameliorates this problem as organic matter helps in increasing adsorptive power of soil for cations and anions particularly phosphate and nitrate. The continuous use of chemical fertilizers over a long period may cause imbalance in the microbial population and there by indirectly affect the biological properties. The microbial biomass, which is the total sum of all microorganisms present in soil, serves as a temporary sink for nutrients including nitrogen and can be considered as an index of soil fertility. Soil harbours dynamic population of microorganisms, which play major role in decomposition of organic matter and transformation of plant nutrients. The availability of organically bounded nitrogen through transformation in soil to the plant mainly depends on the population of microorganisms, which may be influenced by the application of inorganic fertilizers and organic manure.

scholarly journals The role of sideration in the accumulation of organic matter

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (45) ◽  
pp. 17-17
Author(s):  
Alexander Saakian ◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Crop Rotation ◽  
Podzolic Soil ◽  
Organic Fertilizer ◽  
Crop Productivity ◽  
Organic Fertilizers ◽  
White Mustard ◽  
Central Regions

Data on the effect of long-term (18 years) use of crop sideration (white mustard), both separately and in combination with straw fertilizer, on the content of organic matter in sod-podzolic soil and crop productivity are presented. In the conditions of an acute shortage of organic fertilizers in agriculture in the central regions of the non-Chernozem zone, a promising and economically profitable form of organic fertilizer is crop crops of sideral crops from the cruciferous family (white mustard, etc.) Keywords: SOD-PODZOLIC SOIL, CROP ROTATION, WHITE MUSTARD, ORGANIC MATTER

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