Does biochar accelerate the mitigation of greenhouse gaseous emissions from agricultural soil? - A global meta-analysis

Awais Shakoor; Muhammad Saleem Arif; Sher Muhammad Shahzad; Taimoor Hassan Farooq; Fatima Ashraf; Muhammad Mohsin Altaf; Waqas Ahmed; Muhammad Aammar Tufail; Muhammad Ashraf

doi:10.1016/j.envres.2021.111789

Does biochar accelerate the mitigation of greenhouse gaseous emissions from agricultural soil? - A global meta-analysis

Environ Res. 2021 Nov:202:111789. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2021.111789. Epub 2021 Jul 29.

Authors

Awais Shakoor¹, Muhammad Saleem Arif², Sher Muhammad Shahzad³, Taimoor Hassan Farooq⁴, Fatima Ashraf⁵, Muhammad Mohsin Altaf⁶, Waqas Ahmed⁷, Muhammad Aammar Tufail⁸, Muhammad Ashraf⁹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Environment and Soil Sciences, University of Lleida, Avinguda Alcalde Rovira Roure 191, 25198, Lleida, Spain. Electronic address: awais.shakoor@udl.cat.
² Department of Environmental Sciences & Engineering, Government College University Faisalabad, Faisalabad, 38000, Pakistan. Electronic address: msarif@outlook.com.
³ Department of Soil and Environmental Sciences, College of Agriculture, University of Sargodha, Sargodha, 40100, Punjab, Pakistan.
⁴ Bangor College China, a Joint Unit of Bangor University, Wales, UK and Central South University of Forestry and Technology, Changsha 410004, China.
⁵ Department of Chemistry, Lahore College for Women University, Lahore, Pakistan.
⁶ State Key Laboratory of Marine Resource Utilization in South China Sea, College of Ecology and Environment, Hainan University, Haikou, 570228, China.
⁷ Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory for Radionuclides Pollution Control and Resources, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, 510006, China; School of Civil Engineering, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, 510006, PR China.
⁸ Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering, University of Trento, 38123, Trento, Italy.
⁹ Department of Soil Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Punjab, Pakistan.

PMID: 34333013
DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2021.111789

Abstract

Greenhouse gaseous (GHGs) emissions from cropland soils are one of the major contributors to global warming. However, the extent and pattern of these climatic breakdowns are usally determined by the management practices in-place. The use of biochar on cropland soils holds a great promise for increasing the overall crop productivity. Nevertheless, biochar application to agricultural soils has grown in popularity as a strategy to off-set the negative feedback associated with agriculture GHGs emissions, i.e., CO₂ (carbon dioxide), CH₄ (methane), and N₂O (nitrous oxide). Despite increasing efforts to uncover the potential of biochar to mitigate the farmland GHGs effects, there has been little synthesis of how different types of biochar affect GHGs fluxes from cropland soils under varied experimental conditions. Here, we presented a meta-analysis of the interactions between biochar and GHGs emissions across global cropland soils, with field experiments showing the strongest GHG mitigation potential, i.e. CO₂ (RR = -0.108) and CH₄ (RR = -0.399). The biochar pyrolysis temperature, feedstock, C: N ratio, and pH were also found to be important factors influencing GHGs emissions. A prominent reduction in N₂O (RR = -0.13) and CH₄ (RR = -1.035) emissions was observed in neutral soils (pH = 6.6-7.3), whereas acidic soils (pH ≤ 6.5) accounted for the strongest mitigation effect on CO₂ compared to N₂O and CH₄ emissions. We also found that a biochar application rate of 30 t ha^-1 was best for mitigating GHGs emissions while achieving optimal crop yield. According to our meta-analysis, maize crop receiving biochar amendment showed a significant mitigation potential for CO₂, N₂O, and CH₄ emissions. On the other hand, the use of biochar had shown significant impact on the global warming potential (GWP) of total GHGs emissions. The current data synthesis takes the lead in analyzing emissions status and mitigation potential for three of the most common GHGs from cropland soils and demonstrates that biochar application can significantly reduce the emissions budget from agriculture.

Keywords: Agricultural sustainability; Climate mitigation; Cropland soils; Global warming; Organic amendment.

Publication types

Meta-Analysis
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Review

MeSH terms

Agriculture
Charcoal
Greenhouse Gases*
Soil

Substances

Greenhouse Gases
Soil
biochar
Charcoal