Adding biochar to tropical soils is a strategy for improving crop yield and mitigating climate change, but how various biochar types affect crop yield and the properties of temperate soils is still in dispute. Here, we evaluated how slow-pyrolysis charcoal and two biochars derived from energy production (gasification coke and flash-pyrolysis char) affected the growth of Zea mays L. and the related properties of sandy and silty soils within a 3-year mesocosm experiment. Fertilization was performed to optimize plant growth as would be done under common agricultural practice. Analyses included the monitoring of yield, plant and soil nutrients, aggregate stability, cation exchange and water holding capacity, and black carbon content. The results showed that the added biochars did not affect crop yield at an application rate of 15 g biochar kg(-1) of soil. Increasing the application rate of slow-pyrolysis charcoal to 100 g kg(-1) resulted in decreased plant biomass in the second and third year of the experiment, likely as a result of nutrient imbalances and N-immobilization. We did not detect any degradation of the added black carbon; however, beneficial effects on plants were limited by the small and transient effect of these biochars on the physical and chemical properties of soil. Overall, our results indicate that the added carbon from biochars is stored in soil, but all treatments tested failed to improve plant yield for the studied temperate soils under the given application rates and common agricultural practice. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Biochar applications to soils can improve soil fertility by increasing the soil's cation exchange capacity (CEC) and nutrient retention. Because biochar amendment may occur with the applications of organic fertilizers, we tested to which extent composting with farmyard manure increases CEC and nutrient content of charcoal and gasification coke. Both types of biochar absorbed leachate generated during the composting process. As a result, the moisture content of gasification coke increased from 0.02 to 0.94 g g, and that of charcoal increased from 0.03 to 0.52 g g. With the leachate, the chars absorbed organic matter and nutrients, increasing contents of water-extractable organic carbon (gasification coke: from 0.09 to 7.00 g kg; charcoal: from 0.03 to 3.52 g kg), total soluble nitrogen (gasification coke: from not detected to 705.5 mg kg; charcoal: from 3.2 to 377.2 mg kg), plant-available phosphorus (gasification coke: from 351 to 635 mg kg; charcoal: from 44 to 190 mg kg), and plant-available potassium (gasification coke: from 6.0 to 15.3 g kg; charcoal: from 0.6 to 8.5 g kg). The potential CEC increased from 22.4 to 88.6 mmol kg for the gasification coke and from 20.8 to 39.0 mmol kg for the charcoal. There were little if any changes in the contents and patterns of benzene polycarboxylic acids of the biochars, suggesting that degradation of black carbon during the composting process was negligible. The surface area of the biochars declined during the composting process due to the clogging of micropores by sorbed compost-derived materials. Interactions with composting substrate thus enhance the nutrient loads but alter the surface properties of biochars.

The slow alteration of the surface of charred biomass (biochar) over time may contribute to an improved nutrient retention and thus fertility of tropical soils. Here, we investigated soils from temperate climates and investigated whether a technical steam activation of biochar could accelerate its positive effects on nutrient retention and uptake by plants relative to nonactivated biochar. To this aim, we performed microcosm experiments with sandy or silty soil, mixed with 2.0, 7.5 and 15.0 g/kg soil of fine (<2 mm) or coarse-sized (210 mm) biochar from beech wood (Fagus sp.). After initial fertilizer (NPK), ashes and excess nutrients were leached with water, and the microcosms were planted for 142 days with Italian Ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum ssp. italicum). Thereafter, leachate, soil and plant samples were analysed for their nutrient contents. The results showed that biochar additions of =15 g/kg soil left elevated contents of available P and N in the surface soil but reduced their uptake into the plants. As a result, total biomass production was unchanged. Different particle size and application amounts influenced these findings only marginally. Nitrate leaching was enhanced in the sandy soil (+41% for nitrate, but reduced in the silty soil -17%) and P was immobilized. Hence, the fertility of the temperate soils under study was only marginally affected by pure biochar amendments. Steam activation, however, almost doubled the positive effects of biochars in all instances, thus being an interesting option for future biochar applications.