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Evaluation of the short-term affectivity of soil physical and hydraulic properties from biochar

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Ph.D. student, Department of Water Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran.

2 Department of Water Engineering, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran

3 Assistant professor, Department of Range and Watershed Management, Faculty of Natural Resources, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran.

Abstract

Recently, using bio-amendments, especially biochar, has been considered to manage and improve water behavior in the soil of agricultural lands. However, the effect of biochar in a long-time period is one of the challenges. The aim of this research was to measure the physical and hydraulic components of the soil changes from the application of biochar in a short-time period at the laboratory conditions and on the small-scale trays filled by an agricultural disturbed soil. To this end, the bulk samples were taken from the research farm of Urmia University, and the samples poured into the small trays, they were treated by no biochar adding (control) and adding biochar (4.76% of soil weight). After 40 days, some physical and hydraulic components of the soil were measured. The results showed that the values of bulk specific gravity, porosity, weighted and geometric mean of diameter, fissures, transmission pores, storage pores and residual pores of soil as physical components of soil did not change significantly with the use of biochar (p>0.05). The effect of biochar on the components of the soil moisture curve (from suction 2 to 15000 cm), the important potential points of the soil moisture curve including the Field capacity, Permanent wilting point and Available water capacity, as well as the parameters of soil moisture curve of Van Genuchten model was not significant (p>0.05). However, the findings showed that the role of biochar in reducing saturated hydraulic conductivity measured by constant-head method (from 35.13±1.33 to 21.43±3.26 cm day-1; 39% reduction) was significant (p<0.05). Based on the findings of the present research, the application of biochar did not have a significant effect on the physical characteristics and hydraulic behavior of the soil in a short period of time.

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References
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Applied Soil Research
Volume 12, Issue 1 - Serial Number 1
June 2024
Pages 68-82
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History
  • Receive Date: 18 August 2022
  • Revise Date: 18 October 2022
  • Accept Date: 15 May 2023
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