Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2021 Jul;28(26):34108-34120.
doi: 10.1007/s11356-021-14119-7. Epub 2021 May 8.

Could biochar amendment be a tool to improve soil availability and plant uptake of phosphorus? A meta-analysis of published experiments

Fitsum Tesfaye  1   2 , Xiaoyu Liu  1   2   3 , Jufeng Zheng  1   2   3 , Kun Cheng  1   2   3 , Rongjun Bian  1   2   3 , Xuhui Zhang  1   2 , Lianqing Li  1   2   3 , Marios Drosos  1   2 , Stephen Joseph  1 , Genxing Pan  4   5   6
Affiliations
Review

Could biochar amendment be a tool to improve soil availability and plant uptake of phosphorus? A meta-analysis of published experiments

Fitsum Tesfaye et al. Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2021 Jul.

Abstract

As one of the most important nutrients for plant growth, phosphorus was often poorly available in soil. While biochar addition induced improvement of soil structure, nutrient and water retention as well as microbial activity had been well known, and the effect of biochar soil amendment (BSA) on soil phosphorus availability and plant P uptake had been not yet quantitatively assessed. In a review study, data were retrieved from 354 peer-reviewed research articles on soil available P content and P uptake under BSA published by February 2019. Then a database was established of 516 data pairs from 86 studies with and without BSA in agricultural soils. Subsequently, the effect size of biochar application was quantified relative to no application and assessed in terms of biochar conditions, soil conditions, as well as experiment conditions. In grand mean, there was a significant and great effect of BSA on soil available P and plant P uptake by 65% and 55%, respectively. The effects were generally significant under manure biochar, biochar pyrolyzed under 300 °C, soil pH <5 and fine-textured soil, and soils that are very low in available P. Being significantly correlated to soil P availability (R2=0.29), plant P uptake was mostly enhanced with vegetable crops of high biomass yield. Overall, biochar amendment at a dosage up to 10 t ha-1 could be a tool to enhance soil availability and plant uptake of phosphorus, particularly in acid, heavy textured P-poor soils.

Keywords: Agricultural soil; Biochar; Meta-analysis; Phosphorus; Plant uptake; Soil amendment; Soil availability.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Change in soil available P (left) and plant P uptake (right) under biochar amendment depending on experiment type and experiment duration
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Change in soil available P (left) and plant P uptake (right) under biochar amendment depending on feedstock type of biochar, biochar pyrolysis temperature and application rate
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Change in available P (left) and plant uptake (right) under biochar amendment depending on initial soil P, soil pH, and soil texture
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Change in available soil P (left) and plant P uptake (right) under biochar amendment depending on plant/crop types
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Change in plant P uptake related to changes in soil P level under biochar amendment in acid (▲, pH ≤ 6.5) and neutral/alkaline soils (◇, pH >6.5). The long dashed line and the short dashed line represents a significant correlation respectively for acid soils with pH ≤ 6.5 and for neutral/alkaline soils with pH >6.5
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Change in crop yield as a function of changes in P uptake under biochar amendment
Fig. 7
Fig. 7
Change in plant P availability in amended soils as a function of biochar application rate when amended within 10 t ha−1 (R2=0.05 p<0.001)
Fig. 8
Fig. 8
Change in soil P availability as a weak function of pH change in soil pH under biochar amendment (R2=0.03, p<0.001)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Abbie C, Barnes A, McDonagh J, Shackley S. From rhetoric to reality: farmer perspectives on the economic potential of biochar in China. Int J Agric Sustain. 2014;12:440–458. doi: 10.1080/14735903.2014.927711. - DOI
    1. Abbie C, Shackley S, Joseph S, et al. Competing uses for China's straw: the economic and carbon abatement potential of biochar. GCB Bioenergy. 2015;7:1272–1282. doi: 10.1111/gcbb.12220. - DOI
    1. Abujabhah IS, Doyle R, Bound SA, Bowman JP. The effect of biochar loading rates on soil fertility, soil biomass, potential nitrification, and soil community metabolic profiles in three different soils. J Soils Sediments. 2016;16:2211–2222. doi: 10.1007/s11368-016-1411-8. - DOI
    1. Adnan A, Mavinic DS, Koch FA. Pilot-scale study of phosphorus recovery through struvite crystallization examining the process feasibility. J Environ Eng Sci. 2003;2:315–324. doi: 10.1139/s03-040. - DOI
    1. Ahmed HP, Schoenau JJ. Effects of biochar on yield, nutrient recovery, and soil properties in a Canola (Brassica napus L)-wheat (Triticum aestivum L) rotation grown under controlled environmental conditions. Bioen Res. 2015;8:1183–1196. doi: 10.1007/s12155-014-9574-x. - DOI

LinkOut - more resources