Slow-release biochar builds carbon in salty coastal soil without adding salt
Li WT, Liu L, Wang K, Zhang S, Wang L
Soil Health
If you garden on salty, alkaline ground near the coast, ordinary biochar can push salt levels up within days, while a slow-release version may build soil carbon and crumb structure without that penalty.
Regular biochar, the charcoal-like soil booster, made salty coastal soil even saltier and a bit more alkaline within ten days. A slow-release version left salt and pH nearly unchanged, and it increased the soil's carbon and its clumpy, crumbly structure. Planting alongside the slow-release biochar helped even more, since soil carbon fell sharply in pots with plants alone.
Key Findings
Ten days after application, conventional biochar raised soil salinity to 2.5 times the initial level and pH by 0.22, while slow-release biochar (BC-SR) barely changed either.
Soil organic carbon dropped 13% with conventional biochar but rose 24% with BC-SR, along with more macroaggregates and higher microbial biomass.
With plants present, BC-SR raised soil organic carbon by 105%, versus a 41% drop in the plant-only control; exploratory metatranscriptomics linked this to higher carbon-fixation gene transcripts.
chevron_right Technical Summary
A slow-release biochar added to salty, alkaline reclaimed coastal soil raised soil carbon by 24% without spiking salt or pH, while regular biochar pushed salinity to 2.5 times its starting level. The results come from a short, controlled pot experiment, so field performance is still unproven.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Low-release biochar for improving coastal reclaimed Saline-Alkali soil: Short-Term physicochemical responses and exploratory microbial transcriptional associations under controlled pot conditions.
Coastal land reclamation is an important approach to expanding useable land, yet reclaimed soils are often constrained by low fertility, weak structural stability, and saline-alkaline stress. Consi...
open_in_new Read full abstractAbstract copyright held by the original publisher.
Was this useful?
Want to tell us more? (optional)
Thanks for the note!
Something went wrong — please try again.
Too many submissions. Try again in an hour.
Nanoplastics interfere with plant-mycorrhizal communication and limit plant growth.
Microplastics breaking down in your garden soil are quietly strangling the beneficial fungi that help your vegetables absorb phosphorus and other nutrients, ...
Biochar is a carbon-rich soil amendment created from biomass pyrolysis that gradually becomes biologically active when exposed to soil microorganisms. In plant science, biochar is significant because it improves soil structure, enhances water and nutrient retention, and promotes beneficial
arrow_forward Explore topic