Biochar amendment ameliorates soil properties and promotes Miscanthus growth in a coastal saline-alkali soil
Graphical abstract
Introduction
Soil salinization is a worldwide problem, especially in arid and semi-arid regions. It has become one of the major limiting factors that hamper agriculture production globally (Wild, 2003). It is estimated that >1.1 billion hectare land, accounting for approximately 7% of the global land area, is affected by soil salinity to varying degrees (Wicke, 2011). Moreover, the area of salinity-affected land is keep increasing at a rate of approximately 1–2% annually due to global climate change, and improper irrigation and tillage practices (Munns and Tester, 2008).
Salinity adversely affects the growth of crops and causes an annual economic loss of at least 27.2 billion dollars in agriculture production all over the world (Qadir et al., 2014). On the one hand, it causes the increase of osmotic pressure of soil solution, and hinders normal water absorption from roots, resulting in physiological dehydration of plants (Munns, 2002). Salinity stress also triggers the excessive accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in plants, causing substantial oxidative damages that adversely affect plant growth (Miller et al., 2010). On the other hand, salinity adversely affects soil chemical and physical properties such as water retention capability, soil organic matter (SOM) and soil fertility. (Amini et al., 2016; Crescimanno et al., 1995; Läuchli and Lüttge, 2002). It also adversely affects the absorption of nutrients by plants, resulting in severe growth inhibition (Läuchli and Lüttge, 2002; Parida and Das, 2005). In addition, salinity stress affects soil biological properties by decreasing the abundance and diversity of microbial communities (Canfora et al., 2014). Moreover, soil salinization is usually accompanied by alkalization, thus causing more serious deteriorations of soil properties such as severe degradation in soil structural property, additional osmotic and toxicity effects on plants (Rengasamy, 2010).
As the global population is predicted to surge to 9.7 billion by 2050, the current arable land available cannot fulfill the increasing demands for the growing population. To cope with the ever-increasing global population, it is imperative to exploit the abundant saline-alkaline marginal land to cater for the rising demands in agricultural production (Wild, 2003). Recently, biochar amendment has received increasing attentions as an effective means in the remediation of various degraded soils including salinity-affected soils (Ahmed et al., 2016; Saifullah et al., 2018; Yu et al., 2019). Biochar is a carbon-rich porous material produced by pyrolysis of biomass under anaerobic or limited oxygen at relatively low temperature (<700 °C) conditions (Lehmann and Joseph, 2015). It possesses several extraordinary characteristics including porous structure, high specific surface area, and special physicochemical properties (Lehmann and Joseph, 2015). Biochar has been widely employed in various applications including carbon sequestration and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, improving soil fertility and crop yield, and remediating the contaminated or degraded soils (Ahmed et al., 2016; Laghari et al., 2016; Smith, 2016; Yu et al., 2019). Among these applications, biochar has attracted a particularly increasing attention as an effective means in the remediation of salinity-affected soils (Ali et al., 2017; Saifullah et al., 2018).
Recent years have witnessed increasing literature reports demonstrating that biochar application effectively promotes plant growth and improves plant productivity in saline-alkali soils. For example, incorporation of biochar remarkably ameliorates the adverse effects of salinity on potato growth and yield in saline soils (Akhtar et al., 2015a). Likewise, biochar application significantly decreases Na+ uptake and enhances the growth and productivity of wheat in a salinity-affected soil (Akhtar et al., 2015b). Similarly, biochar application alleviates salt stress by reducing Na+ uptake and leads to enhanced yield and quality of tomato in a saline soil (She et al., 2018). Additionally, biochar amendment significantly promotes the growth of two halophyte plants by improving soil physicochemical properties, and shifts the bacterial community structure in a coastal saline-alkali soil (Zheng et al., 2018). Despite that the recent application of biochar in the reclamation of saline-alkali soil has attracted increasing attention, there are still large knowledge gaps underlying the mechanisms of biochar amendment in ameliorating soil properties and mitigating salinity-induced stress in plants.
In this study, we examined the effects of biochar amendment on soil physicochemical and biological properties, and the growth performance of Miscanthus lutarioriparius, a promising bioenergy crop, in a coastal saline-alkali soil. The main objective of our investigation lies in the following aspects: (1) explore the mechanisms of biochar application in the improvement of physicochemical properties of saline-alkali soil; (2) clarify the effects of biochar application on the alteration in bacterial community composition and diversity in saline-alkali affected soil; (3) elucidate the mechanisms of biochar amendment in mitigating salt stress and promoting Miscanthus establishment in the saline-alkali soil. The results obtained may provide beneficial guidance for the reasonable application of biochar in the reclamation of salinity-affected soils.
Section snippets
Soil sample collection
The coastal saline-alkali soil samples were collected in Zaohu village (119°39′ N, 37°o03′ E), Changyi county of Shandong Province at 15 Aug, 2017. The region is located in the southwest of the Yellow River Delta and belongs to the typical warm temperate continental monsoon climate zone. The average annual temperature is around 12.9 °C. The average annual precipitation and evaporation amounts are about 612 mm and 1338 mm, respectively. The land was barren without any crop cultivation and
Physical and chemical properties of saline-alkali soil and biochar
The physical and chemical properties of the saline-alkali soil and biochar were firstly determined and the main parameters are listed in Table 1. The soil was mainly composed of silt and clay components (99.5%) with a pH of 8.8. The soil WHC was 24.4%, and the soil soluble salt content was 8.1 mg kg−1. The soil EC, CEC, and ESP were 3.1 ms cm−1, 9.6 cmol kg−1, and 21.6%, respectively. The contents of total N, total P and available K were 457.2, 676.4 and 175.3 mg kg−1, respectively. In
Discussion
Although accumulating evidence demonstrates biochar amendment as an effective means in promoting the growth and productivity of various crops in different types of soils (Ahmed et al., 2016; Laghari et al., 2016; Yu et al., 2019), the application of biochar in the amelioration of saline-alkali soils has received relatively less attention (Saifullah et al., 2018). Recently, there is emerging evidence showing that biochar amendment, in particularly with combined applications of compost,
Conclusions
In this study, we carried out a pot experiment to examine the effect of biochar amendment on soil physicochemical and biological properties, and the growth promotion effect on a bioenergy crop M. lutarioriparius in a coastal saline-alkali soil. Our results showed that biochar amendment led to significant improvements in soil physical (i.e. bulk density), chemical (i.e. pH, SOM, N and P metabolism and availability, Na+ and K+ concentrations), and biological (i.e. bacterial community structure
Author's contributions
KH performed physicochemical analysis of soil and biochar, soil bacterial 16S rRNA sequencing and data analysis. GH and HZ assisted in the analysis of soil properties. CW and YX performed measurements of plant physiological parameters. GH and SW helped with the preparation and sampling of soil and plant materials. YZ revised the manuscript. GZ supervised the analysis and interpreted the data. RH designed the experiment, analyzed the data, and wrote the manuscript. All authors read and approved
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interests.
Acknowledgements
Financial supports were provided by grants from the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Key Technology Research and Development Program of Shandong (2017CXGC0309), the Joint Funds of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (U1432126), the First Class Grassland Science Discipline Program of Shandong Province, the Youth Innovation Promotion Association, CAS (2014187), and the Taishan Scholar Project of Shandong Province (to G. Z).
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