Campus Units
Agronomy
Document Type
Article
Publication Version
Published Version
Publication Date
3-2013
Journal or Book Title
GCB Bioenergy
Volume
5
Issue
2
First Page
132
Last Page
143
DOI
10.1111/gcbb.12026
Abstract
Increasing the water-holding capacity of sandy soils will help improve efficiency of water use in agricultural production, and may be critical for providing enough energy and food for an increasing global population. We hypothesized that addition of biochar will increase the water-holding capacity of a sandy loam soil, and that the depth of biochar incorporation will influence the rate of biochar surface oxidation in the amended soils. Hardwood fast pyrolysis biochar was mixed with soil (0%, 3%, and 6% w/w) and placed into columns in either the bottom 11.4 cm or the top 11.4 cm to simulate deep banding in rows (DBR) and uniform topsoil mixing (UTM) applications, respectively. Four sets of 18 columns were incubated at 30 °C and 80% RH. Every 7 days, 150 mL of 0.001 M calcium chloride solution was added to the columns to produce leaching. Sets of columns were harvested after 1, 15, 29, and 91 days. Addition of biochar increased the gravity-drained water content 23% relative to the control. Bulk density of the control soils increased with incubation time (from 1.41 to 1.45 g cm−3), whereas bulk density of biochar-treated soils was up to 9% less than the control and remained constant throughout the incubation period. Biochar did not affect the CEC of the soil. The results suggest that biochar added to sandy loam soil increases water-holding capacity and might increase water available for crop use.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Copyright Owner
Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Copyright Date
2012
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Basso, Andres S.; Miguez, Fernando E.; Laird, David A.; Horton, Robert; and Westgate, Mark E., "Assessing potential of biochar for increasing water-holding capacity of sandy soils" (2013). Agronomy Publications. 395.
https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/agron_pubs/395
Included in
Agriculture Commons, Agronomy and Crop Sciences Commons, Hydrology Commons, Soil Science Commons
Comments
This article is published as Basso, Andres S., Fernando E. Miguez, David A. Laird, Robert Horton, and Mark Westgate. "Assessing potential of biochar for increasing water‐holding capacity of sandy soils." Gcb Bioenergy 5, no. 2 (2013): 132-143. doi: 10.1111/gcbb.12026. Posted with permission.