Effects of biochar on water infiltration, evaporation and nitrate leaching in semi-arid loess area

Water scarcity and low use efficiency of nitrogen are the major limiting factors for agriculture sustainable development in dry-land areas of the Loess Plateau. Biochar has been widely proposed as a promising novel alternative of soil amendment to improve soil quality and increase crop productivity,...

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Published inNong ye gong cheng xue bao Vol. 31; no. 16; pp. 128 - 134
Main Authors Xiao, Qian, Zhang, Hongpei, Shen, Yufang, Li, Shiqing
Format Journal Article
LanguageChinese
Published 15.08.2015
Subjects
Constraining
Crops
Evaporation
Infiltration
Leaching
Loess
Nitrates
Soil (material)
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Summary:Water scarcity and low use efficiency of nitrogen are the major limiting factors for agriculture sustainable development in dry-land areas of the Loess Plateau. Biochar has been widely proposed as a promising novel alternative of soil amendment to improve soil quality and increase crop productivity, but limited quantitative work has been addressed on the soil water infiltration process, evaporation characteristics and nitrate leaching. In the present study, by using the soil column simulation investigation, biochar derived from maize stover was applied to 3 different types of soil samples collected from the Loess Plateau at 6 rates of 0, 0.5%, 1%, 2%, 3% and 5% (w/w) with triplicate. The wetting process, the cumulative infiltration amount, the permeability and the stable infiltration rate were determined. Our results suggest that the use of biochar as soil amendment in agricultural soils plays an important role in increasing soil water holding capacity, improving available nitrogen and helping crop developmen
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ISSN:1002-6819
DOI:10.11975/j.issn.1002-6819.2015.16.018