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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.
Sec. Waste Management in Agroecosystems
Volume 8 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2024.1480991
This article is part of the Research Topic Biochar in Agroecosystems: Optimizing Soil Fertility and Crop Productivity View all articles

Compound effects of biochar application and irrigation on soil water and temperature transport

Provisionally accepted
FUchang Jiang FUchang Jiang 1yi Li yi Li 1*Asim Biswas Asim Biswas 2liwei Li liwei Li 1*yonglin Jia yonglin Jia 1*ronghao Guan ronghao Guan 1*
  • 1 Northwest A&F University, Xianyang, China
  • 2 University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The issue of soil salinization poses a significant barrier to sustainable agricultural development, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions. Finding methods to enhance the quality of salinized soils while conserving water resources has become a pressing challenge. In arid and semi-arid environments, conserving water resources while maintaining soil health is a critical challenge. This study, conducted from 2021 to 2023, aimed to explore the combined effects of irrigation and biochar application on soil physicochemical properties, such as bulk density, porosity, and pH, as well as on Weighted Plane Soil Water Storage (WPSWS), soil temperature, and soil water evaporation. The experimental design included four irrigation levels, based on actual crop evapotranspiration (ETc): I1 (0.6 ETc), I2 (0.8 ETc), I3 (1.0 ETc), and I4 (1.2 ETc), coupled with four amounts of biochar application (AOBA) of 0, 10, 20, and 30 t ha -1 , designated as C0, C10, C20, and C30, respectively. Through binary quadratic regression analysis, we sought to identify the optimal combination of irrigation amount and AOBA for enhancing soil quality. The results revealed that as AOBA increased from 10 to 30 t ha -1 , soil bulk density decreased by 1.31-8.58% and soil pH by 0.23-1.31%. However, higher levels of AOBA adversely affected WPSWS, with the C10 treatment showing the maximum improvement in WPSWS, registering an average increase of 6.77%, 7.49%, and 11.16% compared to the C0, C20, and C30 treatments, respectively. We observed that an increase in irrigation amount significantly elevated accumulated soil evaporation (ASE) and WPSWS but led to a reduction in accumulated soil temperature (AST). The most notable soil quality improvements were recorded when irrigation levels were between 340-380 mm and AOBA ranged from 10-25 t ha -1 . This study provides insights into the effective combination of biochar application and irrigation for optimizing soil resilience, thereby offering a sustainable approach to soil management in water-limited environments.

    Keywords: ：Biochar, irrigation, Saline-alkali soil, Soil evaporation, soil temperature

    Received: 15 Aug 2024; Accepted: 17 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Jiang, Li, Biswas, Li, Jia and Guan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    yi Li, Northwest A&F University, Xianyang, China
    liwei Li, Northwest A&F University, Xianyang, China
    yonglin Jia, Northwest A&F University, Xianyang, China
    ronghao Guan, Northwest A&F University, Xianyang, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.