The potential of biochar as a microbial carrier for agricultural and environmental applications

Shiv Bolan; Deyi Hou; Liuwei Wang; Lauren Hale; Dilfuza Egamberdieva; Priit Tammeorg; Rui Li; Bing Wang; Jiaping Xu; Ting Wang; Hongwen Sun; Lokesh P Padhye; Hailong Wang; Kadambot H M Siddique; Jörg Rinklebe; M B Kirkham; Nanthi Bolan

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.163968

The potential of biochar as a microbial carrier for agricultural and environmental applications

Sci Total Environ. 2023 Aug 15:886:163968. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.163968. Epub 2023 May 8.

Authors

Shiv Bolan¹, Deyi Hou², Liuwei Wang², Lauren Hale³, Dilfuza Egamberdieva⁴, Priit Tammeorg⁵, Rui Li⁶, Bing Wang⁷, Jiaping Xu⁸, Ting Wang⁸, Hongwen Sun⁸, Lokesh P Padhye⁹, Hailong Wang¹⁰, Kadambot H M Siddique¹¹, Jörg Rinklebe¹², M B Kirkham¹³, Nanthi Bolan¹⁴

Affiliations

¹ UWA School of Agriculture and Environment, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA 6009, Australia; The UWA Institute of Agriculture, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA 6009, Australia; Healthy Environments and Lives (HEAL) National Research Network, Australia.
² School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, People's Republic of China.
³ USDA, Agricultural Research Service, San Joaquin Valley Agricultural Sciences Center, 9611 South Riverbend Avenue, Parlier, CA 93648-9757, United States.
⁴ Institute of Fundamental and Applied Research, National Research University (TIIAME), Tashkent 100000, Uzbekistan; Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research, Müncheberg, Germany.
⁵ Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
⁶ College of Resources and Environmental Engineering, Guizhou University, Guiyang, Guizhou 550025, People's Republic of China.
⁷ College of Resources and Environmental Engineering, Guizhou University, Guiyang, Guizhou 550025, People's Republic of China; Key Laboratory of Karst Georesources and Environment, Ministry of Education, Guiyang, Guizhou 550025, People's Republic of China.
⁸ MOE Key Laboratory of Pollution Processes and Environmental Criteria, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin, People's Republic of China.
⁹ Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, The University of Auckland, Auckland, 1010, New Zealand.
¹⁰ Biochar Engineering Technology Research Center of Guangdong Province, School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Foshan University, Foshan, Guangdong 528000, People's Republic of China.
¹¹ The UWA Institute of Agriculture, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA 6009, Australia; UWA School of Agriculture and Environment, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA 6009, Australia.
¹² 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.
¹³ Department of Agronomy, Throckmorton Plant Sciences Center, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, United States.
¹⁴ UWA School of Agriculture and Environment, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA 6009, Australia; The UWA Institute of Agriculture, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA 6009, Australia; Healthy Environments and Lives (HEAL) National Research Network, Australia. Electronic address: nanthi.bolan@uwa.edu.au.

PMID: 37164068
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.163968

Abstract

Biochar can be an effective carrier for microbial inoculants because of its favourable properties promoting microbial life. In this review, we assess the effectiveness of biochar as a microbial carrier for agricultural and environmental applications. Biochar is enriched with organic carbon, contains nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium as nutrients, and has a high porosity and moisture-holding capacity. The large number of active hydroxyl, carboxyl, sulfonic acid group, amino, imino, and acylamino hydroxyl and carboxyl functional groups are effective for microbial cell adhesion and proliferation. The use of biochar as a carrier of microbial inoculum has been shown to enhance the persistence, survival and colonization of inoculated microbes in soil and plant roots, which play a crucial role in soil biochemical processes, nutrient and carbon cycling, and soil contamination remediation. Moreover, biochar-based microbial inoculants including probiotics effectively promote plant growth and remediate soil contaminated with organic pollutants. These findings suggest that biochar can serve as a promising substitute for non-renewable substrates, such as peat, to formulate and deliver microbial inoculants. The future research directions in relation to improving the carrier material performance and expanding the potential applications of this emerging biochar-based microbial immobilization technology have been proposed.

Keywords: Agricultural application; Environmental implications; Microbial carrier; Microbial immobilization; Nutrient carrier; biochar.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Agricultural Inoculants*
Agriculture
Carbon
Charcoal
Soil / chemistry
Soil Pollutants* / analysis

Substances

biochar
Carbon
Charcoal
Soil
Soil Pollutants