WASHED BIOCHAR ENHANCES SOIL QUALITY, CARBON FRACTIONS AND THE PERFORMANCE OF AMMONIUM AND NITRATES IN SOIL

摘要

Biochar can play an important role in improving the soil health and crop yield by sequestering the soil carbon and improving the soil structure, soil fertility. An incubation trial was conducted with the hypothesis that application of maize and wheat biochar washed with hot water may affect the performance of macronutrient availability (P, K, NH4+-N, NO3-- N) and carbon fractions soil organic carbon (SOC), microbial biomass carbon MBC in the soil. Results indicated that washed and unwashed biochars application improved the available macronutrients (P, K), soil pH, SOC, MBC and soil cation exchange capacity (CEC) significantly compared to the control. However, washed maize- and wheat-biochars significantly reduced the ammonium and nitrate contents in the soil. The activity of urease enzyme was noticed obviously improved compared to control of the washed and unwashed biochar treatments. And no changes in the activity of invertase enzyme were found across washed and unwashed biochar treatments as compared to control. Overall, wheat and maize derived biochars with and without washing were effective in improving the macronutrients and organic carbon status of the soil.