Addition of walnut shells biochar to alkaline arable soil caused contradictory effects on CO2 and N2O emissions, nutrients availability, and enzymes activity

Tanveer Ali Sial; Sabry M Shaheen; Zhilong Lan; Punhoon Khan Korai; Muhammad Imran Ghani; Muhammad Numan Khan; Ain-Ul-Abad Syed; Main Noor Hussain Asghar Ali; Inayatullah Rajpar; Mehrunisa Memon; Saleem Maseeh Bhatti; Hamada Abdelrahman; Esmat F Ali; Jörg Rinklebe; Jianguo Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.133476

Addition of walnut shells biochar to alkaline arable soil caused contradictory effects on CO₂ and N₂O emissions, nutrients availability, and enzymes activity

Chemosphere. 2022 Apr:293:133476. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.133476. Epub 2022 Jan 8.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ College of Natural Resources and Environment, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, China; Department of Soil Science, Sindh Agriculture University, Tandojam, 70060, Pakistan.
² University of Wuppertal, School of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Institute of Foundation Engineering, Water- and Waste-Management, Laboratory of Soil- and Groundwater-Management, Pauluskirchstraße 7, 42285 Wuppertal, Germany; King Abdulaziz University, Faculty of Meteorology, Environment, and Arid Land Agriculture, Department of Arid Land Agriculture, 21589 Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; University of Kafrelsheikh, Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Soil and Water Sciences, 33516, Kafr El-Sheikh, Egypt.
³ College of Natural Resources and Environment, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, China.
⁴ Faculty of Agriculture, Lasbela University of Agriculture, Water and Marine Sciences, Uthal 90150, Balochistan, Pakistan.
⁵ National Engineering Laboratory for Improving Quality of Arable Land, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China.
⁶ Department of Farm Structures, Sindh Agriculture University, Tandojam, 70060, Pakistan.
⁷ Department of Soil Science, Sindh Agriculture University, Tandojam, 70060, Pakistan.
⁸ Cairo University, Faculty of Agriculture, Soil Science Department, Giza 12613, Egypt.
⁹ Department of Biology, College of Science, Taif University, P.O. Box 11099, Taif 21944, Saudi Arabia.
¹⁰ University of Wuppertal, School of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Institute of Foundation Engineering, Water- and Waste-Management, Laboratory of Soil- and Groundwater-Management, Pauluskirchstraße 7, 42285 Wuppertal, Germany; Department of Environment, Energy and Geoinformatics, Sejong University, Seoul 05006, Republic of Korea.
¹¹ College of Natural Resources and Environment, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, China. Electronic address: zhangjianguo21@nwafu.edu.cn.

PMID: 35016964
DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.133476

Abstract

Mitigation of greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions and improving soil health using biochar (BC) shall help achieving the UN-Sustainable Development Goals. The impacts of walnut shells biochar (WSB) pyrolyzed at different temperatures on CO₂ and N₂O emission and soil health have not been yet sufficiently explored. We investigated the effects of addition of WSB pyrolyzed at either 300 °C (WSB-300), 450 °C (WSB-450), or at 600 °C (WSB-600) to alkaline soil on CO₂ and N₂O emissions, nutrients availability, and soil enzymes activities in a 120-day incubation experiment. Cumulative N₂O emissions were reduced significantly as compared to the control, by 64.9%, 50.6%, and 36.4% after WSB-600, WSB-450 and WSB-300, respectively. However, the cumulative CO₂ emissions increased, over the control, as follows: WSB-600 (50.7%), WSB-450 (68.6%), and WSB-300 (73.4%). Biochar addition, particularly WSB-600 significantly increased soil pH (from 8.1 to 8.34), soil organic C (SOC; from 8.6 to 22.3 g kg^-1), available P (from 21.0 to 60.5 mg kg^-1), and K (181.0-480.5 mg kg^-1), and activities of urease, alkaline phosphatase, and invertase. However, an opposite pattern was observed with NH₄⁺, NO₃^-, total N and β-glucosidase activity after WSB application. The WBS produced from high temperature pyrolysis can be used for N₂O emissions mitigation and improvement of soil pH, SOC, available P and K, and activities of urease, alkaline, phosphatase. However, WBS produced from low temperature pyrolysis can be used to promote N availability and β-glucosidase; however, these findings should be verified under different field and climatic conditions.

Keywords: Fruit shells biochar; Greenhouse gas emissions; Plant nutrients; Soil quality; Volatile organic carbon.

MeSH terms

Agriculture
Carbon Dioxide / analysis
Charcoal
Juglans*
Nitrous Oxide / analysis
Nutrients
Soil*

Substances

Soil
biochar
Carbon Dioxide
Charcoal
Nitrous Oxide