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.
1
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.
2
Soil organic carbon dropped 13% with conventional biochar but rose 24% with BC-SR, along with more macroaggregates and higher microbial biomass.
3
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.
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