The critical role of biochar to mitigate the adverse impacts of drought and salinity stress in plants

Yanfang Wu; Xiaodong Wang; Long Zhang; Yongjie Zheng; Xinliang Liu; Yueting Zhang

doi:10.3389/fpls.2023.1163451

The critical role of biochar to mitigate the adverse impacts of drought and salinity stress in plants

Front Plant Sci. 2023 May 8:14:1163451. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1163451. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Yanfang Wu¹, Xiaodong Wang¹, Long Zhang², Yongjie Zheng¹, Xinliang Liu¹, Yueting Zhang¹

Affiliations

¹ Camphor Engineering Technology Research Center for National Forestry and Grassland Administration, Jiangxi Academy of Forestry, Nanchang, China.
² College of Life Sciences, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China.

Abstract

Drought stress (DS) is a potential abiotic stress that is substantially reducing crop productivity across the globe. Likewise, salinity stress (SS) is another serious abiotic stress that is also a major threat to global crop productivity. The rapid climate change increased the intensity of both stresses which pose a serious threat to global food security; therefore, it is urgently needed to tackle both stresses to ensure better crop production. Globally, different measures are being used to improve crop productivity under stress conditions. Among these measures, biochar (BC) has been widely used to improve soil health and promote crop yield under stress conditions. The application of BC improves soil organic matter, soil structure, soil aggregate stability, water and nutrient holding capacity, and the activity of both beneficial microbes and fungi, which leads to an appreciable increase in tolerance to both damaging and abiotic stresses. BC biochar protects membrane stability, improves water uptake, maintains nutrient homeostasis, and reduces reactive oxygen species production (ROS) through enhanced antioxidant activities, thereby substantially improving tolerance to both stresses. Moreover, BC-mediated improvements in soil properties also substantially improve photosynthetic activity, chlorophyll synthesis, gene expression, the activity of stress-responsive proteins, and maintain the osmolytes and hormonal balance, which in turn improve tolerance against osmotic and ionic stresses. In conclusion, BC could be a promising amendment to bring tolerance against both drought and salinity stresses. Therefore, in the present review, we have discussed various mechanisms through which BC improves drought and salt tolerance. This review will help readers to learn more about the role of biochar in causing drought and salinity stress in plants, and it will also provide new suggestions on how this current knowledge about biochar can be used to develop drought and salinity tolerance.

Keywords: antioxidants; biochar; drought; osmotic stress; salinity; soil organic matter.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Science and Technology Planning Project of Jiangxi Province (20203BBF62W010 and 20202BBF63006) and the Forestry Science and Technology Innovation Special Project of Jiangxi Forestry Department (CXZX) (2021)15 and JXTG (2021)16).