Phosphate-lanthanum coated sewage sludge biochar improved the soil properties and growth of ryegrass in an alkaline soil

Zouhair Elkhlifi; Muhammad Kamran; Ahsan Maqbool; Ali El-Naggar; Jerosha Ifthikar; Aasma Parveen; Saqib Bashir; Muhammad Rizwan; Adnan Mustafa; Sana Irshad; Shafaqat Ali; Zhuqi Chen

doi:10.1016/j.ecoenv.2021.112173

Phosphate-lanthanum coated sewage sludge biochar improved the soil properties and growth of ryegrass in an alkaline soil

Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 2021 Mar 30:216:112173. doi: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2021.112173. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Material Chemistry for Energy Conversion and Storage, Ministry of Education, Hubei Key Laboratory of Material Chemistry and Service Failure, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, PR China.
² CAS Key Laboratory of Soil Environment and Pollution Remediation, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, PR China.
³ Department of Soil Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Ain Shams University, Cairo 11241, Egypt.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Material Chemistry for Energy Conversion and Storage, Ministry of Education, Hubei Key Laboratory of Material Chemistry and Service Failure, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, PR China; Department of Environmental Engineering, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, PR China.
⁵ Faculty of Agriculture & Environmental Sciences, Department of Soil Science, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur 63100, Punjab, Pakistan.
⁶ Department of Soil and Environmental Science, Ghazi University, Dera Ghazi Khan, Pakistan.
⁷ Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Government College University Faisalabad, Faisalabad 38000, Pakistan.
⁸ Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, PR China.
⁹ School of Environmental Studies, China University of Geo Sciences, Wuhan 430074, Hubei, PR China.
¹⁰ Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Government College University Faisalabad, Faisalabad 38000, Pakistan; Department of Biological Sciences and Technology, China Medical University, Taichung 40402, Taiwan. Electronic address: shafaqataligill@yahoo.com.
¹¹ Key Laboratory of Material Chemistry for Energy Conversion and Storage, Ministry of Education, Hubei Key Laboratory of Material Chemistry and Service Failure, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, PR China. Electronic address: zqchen@hust.edu.cn.

PMID: 33798866
DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2021.112173

Abstract

The reclamation of alkaline soils remains challenging while the application of biochar has been proposed as a viable measure to rehabilitate soil fertility. The objective of the current pot study was to evaluate the efficacy of various P-La modified sewage sludge biochars (SSBC, La-SSBC, SSBC-P, La-SSBC-P) on soil phosphate-retention and ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) growth in an alkaline soil (excess CaCO₃). The results revealed that germination percentage, plant dry biomass, plant height, and the total amount of P in the ryegrass leaves were significantly (P < 0.05) improved under La-SSBC-P treatment as compared to other treatments. La-SSBC-P treatment significantly altered the chemical characteristics of post-harvest alkaline soil, such as pH, electrical conductivity (EC), cation exchange capacity (CEC), soil organic matter (SOM), limestone (CaCO₃), phosphate, and lanthanum contents. In comparison to the SSBC treatment, soil available phosphorous (AP) contents under La-SSBC-P were enhanced by 6.7 times after loading biochar with P and La (La-SSBC-P). After the plantation of ryegrass, concentration of lanthanum in the soil was negligible. The contents of CaCO₃ reduced by 76.2% after La-SSBC-P biochar treatment, compared to the cultivated control. This phenomenon clearly indicated that lanthanum was reduced due to the precipitation with limestone, which was proposed based on the data of X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. Overall, results showed that the P-loaded lanthanum decorated biochar (La-SSBC-P) could be used as a potential substitute for P-fertilizer under the experimental conditions. However, field experiments are required to confer the efficiency of La-SSBC-P as P fertilizer in different soils.

Keywords: Alkaline soil; Phosphorous; Ryegrass; Sewage sludge biochar; Soil fertility.