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.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

Adekiya A.O., Agbede T.M., Olayanju A., Ejue W.S., Adekanye T.A., Adenusi T.T. and Ayeni J.F. 2020. Effect of biochar on soil properties, soil loss, and cocoyam yield on a tropical sandy loam Alfisol. The Scientific World Journal, 2020: 9391630.
Ajayi  A.E., Holthusen  D., Horn  R.  2016. Changes in microstructural behaviour and hydraulic functions of biochar amended soils. Soil Tillage Research, 155, 166–175.
Andrenelli M.C., Maienza A., Genesio L., Miglietta F., Pellegrini S., Vaccari F.P. and Vignozzi, N. 2016. Field application of pelletized biochar: Short term effect on the hydrological properties of a silty clay loam soil. Agricultural Water Management, 163: 190-196.
Asghari Sh., Zeinalzadeh K., Kheirfam H. and Habibzadeh Azar, B. 2022. The impact of cyanobacteria inoculation on soil hydraulic properties at the lab-scale experiment. Agricultural Water Management, 272: 107865.
78
Barbier E.B. and Hochard J.P. 2018. Land degradation and poverty. Nature Sustainability, 1(11): 623-631.
Behzadfar M., Sadeghi S.H.R., Khanjani M.J. and Hazbavi Z. 2017. Effects of rates and time of zeolite application on controlling runoff generation and soil loss from a soil subjected to a freeze-thaw cycle. International Soil and Water Conservation Research, 5(2): 95-101.
Cao Y., Wang B., Guo H., Xiao H. and Wei T. 2017. The effect of super absorbent polymers on soil and water conservation on the terraces of the loess plateau. Ecological Engineering, 102: 270-279.
Castellini M., Giglio L. and Niedda M. 2015. Impact of biochar addition on the physical and hydraulic properties of a clay soil. Soil and Tillage Research, 154: 1–13.
Devereux R.C., Sturrock C.J. and Mooney S.J. 2012. The effects of biochar on soil physical properties and winter wheat growth. Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 103(1): 13-18.
Du Preez C.C. and Van Huyssteen C.W. 2020. Threats to soil and water resources in South Africa. Environmental Research, 183: 109015.
Fu Q., Zhao H., Li T., Hou R., Liu D., Ji Y. and Yang L. 2019. Effects of biochar addition on soil hydraulic properties before and after freezing-thawing. Catena, 176: 112-124.
Gao Y., Li T., Fu Q., Li H., Liu D., Ji Y., Li Q. and Cai Y. 2020. Biochar application for the improvement of water-soil environments and carbon emissions under freeze-thaw conditions: An in-situ field trial. Science of the Total Environment, 723: 138007.
Ghorbani-Dashtaki S., Tozhi M. Motaghian H. and Ghasemi A. 2021. Effect of walnut wood and walnut green shell biochar on water retention status in a sandy soil. Applied Soil Research, 8(4): 44-56 (In Persian)
Głąb  T., Żabiński  A., Sadowska  U. 2018. Effects of co-composted maize, sewage sludge, and biochar mixtures on hydrological and physical qualities of sandy soil. Geoderma. 315, 27–35.
Gray  M., Johnson  M.G., Dragila  M.I.  2014. Water uptake in biochars: the roles of porosity and hydrophobicity. Biomass Bioenergy 61 (4), 196–205.
Greenland D.J. 1977. Soil damage by intensive arable cultivation: temporary orpermanent? Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 281: 193-208.
Hardie M., Clothier B., Bound S., Oliver G. and Close D. 2014. Does biochar influence soil physical properties and soil water availability? Plant and Soil, 376(1): 347-361.
Heidari A., Stahl R., Younesi H., Rashidi A., Troeger N. and Ghoreyshi A.A. 2014. Effect of process conditions on product yield and composition of fast pyrolysis of Eucalyptus grandis in fluidized bed reactor. Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, 20(4): 2594-2602.
Herath H.M.S.K., Camps-Arbestain M. and Hedley M. 2013. Effect of biochar on soil physical properties in two contrasting soils: an Alfisol and an Andisol. Geoderma, 209: 188-197.
Hillel  D.  2003. Introduction to environmental soil physics. Elsevier.
Jeffery S., Meinders M.B., Stoof C.R., Bezemer T.M., van de Voorde T.F., Mommer L., and van Groenigen J.W. 2015. Biochar application does not improve the soil hydrological function of a sandy soil. Geoderma, 251: 47-54.
Jiang H., Han X., Zou W., Hao X. and Zhang B. 2018. Seasonal and long-term changes in soil physical properties and organic carbon fractions as affected by manure application rates in the Mollisol region of Northeast China. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 268: 133-143.
Kheirfam H. and Roohi M. 2020. Accelerating the formation of biological soil crusts in the newly dried-up lakebeds using the inoculation-based technique. Science of the Total Environment, 706: 136036.
Kheirfam H., Sadeghi S.H.R. and Zarei Darki B. 2020. Soil conservation in an abandoned agricultural rain-fed land through inoculation of cyanobacteria. Catena, 187: 104341.
Kim, W.K., Shim, T., 2013. Characterization of cadmium removal from aqueous solution by biochar produced from a giant miscanthus at different pyrolytic temperatures. Bioresour. Technol. 138 (2), 266–270.
Kranz C.N., McLaughlin R.A., Johnson A., Miller G. and Heitman J.L. 2020. The effects of compost incorporation on soil physical properties in urban soils–A concise review. Journal of Environmental Management, 261: 110209.
Laird D.A., Novak J.M., Collins H.P., Ippolito J.A., Karlen D.L., Lentz R.D., Sistani K.R., Spokas  K. and Van Pelt R.S. 2017. Multi-year and multi-location soil quality and crop biomass yield responses to hardwood fast pyrolysis biochar. Geoderma, 289: 46-53.
Lei Z.D., Yang S.X. and Xie S.Z. 1988. Soil Water Dynamics. Tsinghua University Press, Beijing, 18–24.
Liang  J.P., Li  Y., Si  B., Wang  Y.Z., Chen  X.G., Wang  X.F., Chen  H.R., Wang  H.R., Zhang  F.C., Bai  Y.G., Biswas  A.  2021. Optimizing biochar application to improve soil physical and hydraulic properties in saline-alkali soils. Science of the Total Environment, 771: 144802.
Lim  T.J., Spokas  K.A., Feyereisen  G., 2016. Predicting the impact of biochar additions on soil hydraulic properties. Chemosphere, 142: 136–144.
Liu B., Fan H., Han W., Zhu L., Zhao X., Zhang Y. and Ma R. 2021. Linking soil water retention capacity to pore structure characteristics based on X-ray computed tomography: Chinese Mollisol under freeze-thaw effect. Geoderma, 401: 115170.
Maltas A., Kebli H., Oberholzer H.R., Weisskopf P. and Sinaj S. 2018. The effects of organic and mineral fertilizers on carbon sequestration, soil properties, and crop yields from a long‐term field experiment under a Swiss conventional farming system. Land Degradation & Development, 29(4): 926-938.
Mokarram-Kashtiban S., Hosseini S.M., Tabari Kouchaksaraei M. and Younesi H. 2019. Biochar improves the morphological, physiological and biochemical properties of white willow seedlings in heavy metal-contaminated soil. Archives of Biological Sciences, 71(2): 281-291.
Mualem Y. 1976. A new model for predicting the hydraulic conductivity of unsaturated porous media. Water Resources Research, 12: 513-522.
Neville  A.M. and Brooks, J.J.  1987. Concrete technology (Vol. 438). England: Longman Scientific & Technical.
Paz-Ferreiro J., Lu H., Fu S., Méndez A. and Gascó G. 2014. Use of phytoremediation and biochar to remediate heavy metal polluted soils: a review. Solid Earth, 5(1): 65-75.
Randolph P., Bansode R.R., Hassan O.A., Rehrah D., Ravella R., Reddy M.R., Watts D.W., Novak J.M. and Ahmedna M. 2017. Effect of biochars produced from solid organic municipal waste on soil quality parameters. Journal of Environmental Management, 192: 271-280.
Sadeghi S.H.R. 2017. Soil erosion in Iran: state of the art, tendency and solutions. Poljoprivreda i Sumarstvo 63(3): 33-37.
Sadeghi S.H.R., GhavimiPanah M.H., Younesi, H. and Kheirfam H. 2018. Ameliorating some quality properties of an erosion-prone soil using biochar produced from dairy wastewater sludge. Catena, 171: 193-198.
Sadeghi  S.H.R., Najafinejad A.  Gharemahmudli S., Zarei Darki B.  Behbahani A.M. and Kheirfam  H. 2021. Reduction in soil loss caused by a freeze-thaw cycle through inoculation of endemic soil microorganisms. Applied Soil Ecology, 157: 103770.
Smith P., Calvin K., Nkem J., Campbell D., Cherubini F., Grassi G., Korotkov V., Le Hoang A., Lwasa S., McElwee P. and Nkonya E. 2020. Which practices co‐deliver food security, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and combat land degradation and desertification. Global Change Biology, 26(3): 1532-1575.
Van Genuchten M.T. 1980. A closed‐form equation for predicting the hydraulic conductivity of unsaturated soils. Soil Science Society of America Journal, 44(5): 892-898.
Van Genuchten M.T. Leij F.J. and Yates S.R. 1991. The RETC code for quantifying the hydraulic functions of unsaturated soils. US Salinity Laboratory, Agricultural Research Service, US Department of Agriculture, California.
Verheijen  F.G.A., Zhuravel  A., Silva  F.C., Amaro  A., Ben-Hur  M., Keizer  J.J.  2019. The influence of biochar particle size and concentration on bulk density and maximum water holding capacity of sandy vs sandy loam soil in a column experiment. Geoderma, 347: 194–202.
Vitkova  J., Surda  P., Kondrlova  E., Horak  J. and Rodny, M.  2017. Analysis of soil water content and crop yield after biochar application in field conditions. Plant, soil and environment, 63(12): 569-573.
Wang H., Shao D., Ji B., Gu W. and Yao M. 2022. Biochar effects on soil properties, water movement and irrigation water use efficiency of cultivated land in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Science of the Total Environment, 829: 154520.
Wong J.T.F., Chen Z., Wong A.Y.Y., Ng C.W.W. and Wong M.H. 2018. Effects of biochar on hydraulic conductivity of compacted kaolin clay. Environmental Pollution, 234: 468–472.
80
Xue S., Ye Y., Zhu F., Wang Q., Jiang J. and Hartley W. 2019. Changes in distribution and microstructure of bauxite residue aggregates following amendments addition. Journal of Environmental Sciences, 78: 276-286.
Yang  C.D. and Lu, S.G.  2021. Effects of five different biochars on aggregation, water retention and mechanical properties of paddy soil: A field experiment of three-season crops. Soil and Tillage Research, 205, 104798.
Zhao  D., Huang  S., Huang  J.S.  2015. Effects of biochar on hydraulic parameters and shrinkage-swelling rate of silty clay. Transations of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering, 31 (17): 136–143.
Zuo Y., Meng F., Li T., Fu Q., Liu D., Hou R. Li Q. and Li M. 2022. Effect of biochar application on freezing-thawing deformation of farmland soil during freeze–thaw cycling. Geoderma, 405: 115510.

Files

History

  • Receive Date: 18 August 2022
  • Revise Date: 18 October 2022
  • Accept Date: 15 May 2023

Share

How to cite

Statistics