Assessing potential of biochar for increasing water-holding capacity of sandy soils
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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.
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Biochar probably increased water use efficiency (WUE) and reduced evaporation from the soil surface.
“Thus, BC probably increased the water use efficiency (WUE), in accordance with earlier observations (Uzoma et al., 2011), and reduced evaporation from the soil surface, which was previously observed for biochar addition (3% w:w) (Basso et al., 2013).”
From Biochar improves maize growth by alleviation of nutrient stress in a moderately acidic low-input Nepalese soil (2018) · cites this paper as Basso et al., 2013
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- Authors
- Basso, A. S., Miguez, F. E., Laird, D. A., Horton, R., & Westgate, M.
- Affiliations
- Iowa State University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Miguez, Fernando E.
- Venue
- GCB Bioenergy
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2012-12-15
- Volume
- 5
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 132-143
- ISSN
- 1757-1693 (ISSN-L)
- 1757-1707
- OpenAlex
- W2097643082
- Cited by
- 552
- References
- 46
- Citations by year
- 2026: 25 · 2025: 50 · 2024: 38 · 2023: 57 · 2022: 49 · 2021: 62 · 2020: 62 · 2019: 44 · 2018: 41 · 2017: 44 · 2016: 32 · 2015: 25 · 2014: 20 · 2013: 3
- FWCI
- 23.91
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- lib.dr.iastate.edu
- Locations
- GCB Bioenergy (publishedVersion)
- Iowa State University Digital Repository (Iowa State University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Soil Science › Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Civil and Structural Engineering › Soil and Unsaturated Flow
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Soil Science › Soil Management and Crop Yield
- Keywords
- biochar, water holding capacity, sandy soil, sandy loam soil, soil bulk density, cation exchange capacity, soil water retention, soil amendment
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