Salt-affected marginal lands:a solution for biochar production

The literature has shown that biochar can serve as potential amendment to achieve sustainable agriculture and environment.The accessibility and availability of cheap feedstock are considered as important constraint factors for the widespread application of biochar in agriculture.Marginal lands are widely distributed globally,several times larger than arable land,and hold little value for food production due to poor soil conditions.However,these lands are suitable for growing plants,which can be used as feedstock for biochar production.The salt-affected lands,as one of the main marginal lands,are particularly suitable for cultivating diverse varieties of halophytes that can be pyrolyzed into biochar,bio-gas,and bio-oil.The halophyte-derived biochar is useful to produce a desirable acid soil conditioner due to its high ash and rich bases,and improves soil characteristics under extreme saline conditions.Additionally,syngas and bio-oil hold potential benefits as fuels and industrial raw materials.This study introduces an innovative management technique for marginal lands such as salt-affected land,which can provide all-round benefits in food production,land management,vegetation coverage,carbon sequestration,and climate change mitigation.

Short-term biochar effect on soil physicochemical and microbiological properties of a degraded alpine grassland

Soil remediation is an important part of the restoration process of degraded terrestrial ecosystems.Due to its unique properties,biochar is being used widely as an effective soil modifier in agricultural systems,but research is still rare on biochar application in grassland ecosystems,especially in degraded alpine grasslands.In this study,we conducted a plot experiment to investigate the effect of biochar application on soil physicochemical properties and microorganisms at the 0–20 cm soil depth of a degraded alpine grassland in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau,China.The experiment consisted of four corn straw biochar application levels(0%,0.5%,1%and 2%,with the percentage representing the ratio of biochar weight to the dry weight of soil in the surface 20 cm soil layer).When the biochar addition increased from 0%to 2%,total nitrogen,total organic carbon and available phosphorus in the 0–10 cm soil layer increased by 41%,55%and 45%,respectively,in the second year after biochar addition.Meanwhile,soil electrical conductivity decreased,and soil water content increased.Total microbial,fungal and bacterial biomasses in the 0–10 cm soil layer increased from 9.15 to 12.68,0.91 to 1.34,and 3.85 to 4.55μg g^(-1),respectively.The relative biomasses of saprophytic fungi and methanotrophic bacteria decreased,while the relative biomasses of ectomycorrhizal fungi and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi increased.These results indicate that biochar has a great potential in improving microbial activity and soil fertility in soil remediation of the degraded alpine grassland.