Helena Dvořáčková and Jakub Elbl and Irina Mikajlo and Antonín Kintl and Jaroslav Hynšt and Olga Urbánková and Jaroslav Záhora
The Potential Effect of Biochar Application on Microbial Activities and Availability of Mineral Nitrogen in Arable Soil Stressed by Drought
911 - 915
2015
9
8
International Journal of Animal and Veterinary Sciences
https://publications.waset.org/pdf/10002120
https://publications.waset.org/vol/104
World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology
Application of biochar to arable soils represents a new
approach to restore soil health and quality. Many studies reported the
positive effect of biochar application on soil fertility and
development of soil microbial community. Moreover biochar may
affect the soil water retention, but this effect has not been sufficiently
described yet. Therefore this study deals with the influence of
biochar application on microbial activities in soil, availability of
mineral nitrogen in soil for microorganisms, mineral nitrogen
retention and plant production. To demonstrate the effect of biochar
addition on the above parameters, the pot experiment was realized.
As a model crop, Lactuca sativa L. was used and cultivated from
December 10th 2014 till March 22th 2015 in climate chamber in
thoroughly homogenized arable soil with and without addition of
biochar. Five variants of experiment (V1 – V5) with different regime
of irrigation were prepared. Variants V1 – V2 were fertilized by
mineral nitrogen, V3 – V4 by biochar and V5 was a control. The
significant differences were found only in plant production and
mineral nitrogen retention. The highest content of mineral nitrogen
in soil was detected in V1 and V2, about 250 in comparison with
the other variants. The positive effect of biochar application on soil
fertility, mineral nitrogen availability was not found. On the other
hand results of plant production indicate the possible positive effect
of biochar application on soil water retention.
Open Science Index 104, 2015