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Cited by 616

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 56 of the 56 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Organic coating on biochar explains its nutrient retention and stimulation of soil fertility

Open access
Hagemann, Nikolas, Joseph, Stephen, Schmidt, Hans-Peter, Kammann, Claudia I., Harter, Johannes, Borch, Thomas, Young, Robert B., Varga, Krisztina, Taherymoosavi, Sarasadat, Elliott, K. Wade, McKenna, Amy, Albu, Mihaela, Mayrhofer, Claudia, Obst, Martin, Conte, Pellegrino, Dieguez-Alonso, Alba, Orsetti, Silvia, Subdiaga, Edisson, Behrens, Sebastian, Kappler, Andreas·2017·Nature Communications

Abstract

Amending soil with biochar (pyrolized biomass) is suggested as a globally applicable approach to address climate change and soil degradation by carbon sequestration, reducing soil-borne greenhouse-gas emissions and increasing soil nutrient retention. Biochar was shown to promote plant growth, especially when combined with nutrient-rich organic matter, e.g., co-composted biochar. Plant growth promotion was explained by slow release of nutrients, although a mechanistic understanding of nutrient storage in biochar is missing. Here we identify a complex, nutrient-rich organic coating on co-composted biochar that covers the outer and inner (pore) surfaces of biochar particles using high-resolution spectro(micro)scopy and mass spectrometry. Fast field cycling nuclear magnetic resonance, electrochemical analysis and gas adsorption demonstrated that this coating adds hydrophilicity, redox-active moieties, and additional mesoporosity, which strengthens biochar-water interactions and thus enhances nutrient retention. This implies that the functioning of biochar in soil is determined by the formation of an organic coating, rather than biochar surface oxidation, as previously suggested.

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Metadata

Authors
Hagemann, N., Joseph, S., Schmidt, H.-P., Kammann, C. I., Harter, J., Borch, T., Young, R. B., Varga, K., Taherymoosavi, S., Elliott, K. W., McKenna, A., Albu, M., Mayrhofer, C., Obst, M., Conte, P., Dieguez-Alonso, A., Orsetti, S., Subdiaga, E., Behrens, S., & Kappler, A.
Venue
Nature Communications
Published
2017-10-20
Volume
8
Issue
1
Pages
1089-1089
ISSN
2041-1723 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2766130505
Cited by
616
References
56
FWCI
42.83
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
gold

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Organic coating on biochar explains its nutrient retention and stimulation of soil fertility. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1038/s41467-017-01123-0
The paper
Hagemann, N., Joseph, S., Schmidt, H.-P., Kammann, C. I., Harter, J., Borch, T., Young, R. B., Varga, K., Taherymoosavi, S., Elliott, K. W., McKenna, A., Albu, M., Mayrhofer, C., Obst, M., Conte, P., Dieguez-Alonso, A., Orsetti, S., Subdiaga, E., Behrens, S., & Kappler, A. (2017). Organic coating on biochar explains its nutrient retention and stimulation of soil fertility. Nature Communications. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-01123-0

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Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).

Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.