Abstract
One of the most important problems in agriculture is water scarcity. Biochar, as a soil amendment, has the potential to overcome this problem by improving soil’s physicochemical and hydraulic properties. However, the study of biochar’s physical and hydraulic characteristics, its potential to improve soil physical and soil water holding capacity, and its contribution to water saving and reduction in irrigation costs is lacking. The understanding of biochar’s characteristics is so important because the effectiveness of biochar as a soil amendment is dependent on biochar properties. Our goal is to determine how biochar’s pore volume, pore size distribution, specific surface area, and water uptake by biochar interact with soil’s physical and hydraulic properties. The pore volume, pore size distribution, porous network, specific surface area, and water holding capacity (WHC) were evaluated in four biochars produced from elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum), castor bean seeds, soybean seeds, and Jatropha sp. cake pyrolyzed at 380 °C. Our results demonstrated that the specific surface area and pore volume do not contribute to water uptake in hydrophobic biochars from castor bean seeds, soybean seeds, and Jatropha sp, but the results also demonstrated that these biochars have the potential to reduce soil compaction and increase soil porosity. Interestingly, the macroporosity and low hydrophobicity of the elephant grass biochar contributed to increase in its water uptake; these characteristics make this biochar promisor in increasing the soil water holding capacity and water saving and reducing the irrigation costs.
Abstract Highlights
• Different biochar has different potential to change soil physics and hydraulic properties.
• Biochar from elephant grass is promising to improve soil hydraulic properties.
• Biochar from Castor bean seeds, soybean, and Jatropha sp. are indicated to improve soil physical properties.
AbstractSection Graphical Abstract
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Data Availability
The data required to reproduce the results of our work are available by reasonable request to Rittl, TF.
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Acknowledgements
The authors greatly appreciate the support of INMETRO, especially Dr. Carlos Achete for his contribution to the biochar analysis.
Funding
This study was supported by the CNPq (grant number 404150/2013–6) and conducted at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
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De Jesus Duarte, S was responsible for writing the manuscript; Cerri CEP contributed to conducting the research and improvement of the manuscript; Rittl, TF performed the biochar analysis; Abbruzzin, TF contributed to the correction of the manuscript and improvement of the figures, and Prado Pano, B contributed with the correction of the manuscript.
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de Jesus Duarte, S., Cerri, C.E.P., Rittl, T.F. et al. Biochar Physical and Hydrological Characterization to Improve Soil Attributes for Plant Production. J Soil Sci Plant Nutr 23, 3051–3057 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42729-023-01273-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42729-023-01273-9