Biochar production from agro-environmental waste biomass is attracting huge interest as a low-cost amendment due to its potential numerous benefits to agriculture and environment, as well as its ...ability to store soil water. This review summarizes the influences of biomass-derived low-cost biochar on agriculture and environmental health, crop responses, nutrient dynamics, and soil biological parameter–related issues as well as how biochar can helpful for agriculture and environment management. Besides, biochar safety issues and human health in agro-environment have also been discussed. Application of biochar in agro-environment exerts measurable changes in physico-chemical and biological properties as well as carbon balance. Mechanistic evidences of biochar’s potential for enhancing crop productivity, soil water availability, biochar co-composting, and nutrient use efficiency are also discussed. The review also identifies several knowledge gaps and future research directions for large-scale use of biochar. Hence, this information in the form review is new of its kind which is useful to the broad spectrum of readers. Thus, the biochar addition in agro-environment emerges as a “win-win strategy” for sustainable soil health and environmental ecofriendly assets. But some technical and practical barriers are reported in biochar application in large quantities, which are a major concern today.
Till date there is not much concrete data available linking valorization of biomass-derived engineered biochar for soil, plant, water system, and microbial dynamics under changing climatic ...conditions. This review article deals with the abovementioned burning topic by collection of world literature. It summarizes the conversion of biomass into biochar, their characterization, and pyrolysis influence on composition. Besides it discusses about biomass through biochar which can help to establish a relationship with soil, plant, and water to manage soil fertility–related issues and microbe interactions. Biochar addition exerts measurable changes in carbon footprint, physicochemical and biological soil properties, nutrient sorption-retention, water retention, crop production, and nutrient leaching. Mechanistic evidences of biochars’ potential on soil biology, systemic resistance, carbon mineralization kinetics and N
2
-fixation, and mycorrhizal colonization were mentioned in this review article. The recalcitrance, pore space, surface morphology, and pH of biochar on soil, plant, water system, and microbes are found to be controlled by biomass type, pyrolysis temperature, biotic interactions, etc. Biochar with fertilizer integration offers an improved soil management strategy, and therefore, biomass valorization through its application in soil, plant, water, and microbial dynamics comes out as a “
win-win
strategy” for adequate climate change mitigation and environmental eco-friendly technology.
It was quantified the influence of four different biomasses viz. tree, weed and crop on twenty compositional characteristics of produced biochar for their wide range of environmental application. The ...removal of most widespread heavy metal ions (cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), nickel (Ni), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu) and arsenic (As)) by adsorption on four biochars has been investigated. Initial evaluation revealed that all the biochar was efficient in removing a mixture of six heavy metals from aqueous phase having maximum removal for arsenic and minimum nickel. Utilizing four different biochars, the average removal rate of heavy metal from aqueous solution was 49.5–66.1% (Cd), 47.3–60.0% (Pb), 45.5–60.6% (Ni), 46.6–60.8% (Zn), 49.3–63.2% (Cu) and 52.7–64.2% (As) compared with no biochar treatment. The percent decrease of Pb heavy metal adsorption with increase in maximum contaminant level (MCL) from 1- to 5-fold was 54.7 (black gram biochar), 53.5 (pine needle biochar), 52.02 (
Lantana camara
biochar) and 50.0 (maize stalk biochar). The effect of dose study showed that As adsorption on all the four types of biochar was most favourable and Ni adsorption was the most awful. At the bio-filtration stage, the wastewater was treated with four different biochars and the physico-chemical character changes were recorded before and after treatment with biochar. The wastewater total chemical oxygen demand, total soluble solid, ammonia, total potassium and nitrogen and total potassium values demonstrated an 88.3–90.6%, 84.8–81.1%, 90.9–86.6%, 58.8–69.3% and 88.1–77.96% decrease, respectively. Additionally, the wastewater As, Cd, Cr, Pb, Zn and Cu values resulted a 78.5–86.5%, 52.6–94.7%, 83.1–88.1%, 94.6–77.8%, 90.1–94.5% and 93.3–95.5% decrease, respectively, after being passed via biochar bio-filter. Therefore, the four developed biochar explored huge potential for removal of heavy metal along with wastewater treatment to meet guidelines for wastewater effluent disposal.
Seed treatment with biomass-derived biochar has potential to overcome the moisture, nutrients, and hormonal constraint on native germination and early growth. An experiment was conducted to study the ...effect of different levels of biochars obtained from four divergent biomass on seed germination and seedling growth of maize and black gram. All the biochars were prepared at 500 °C and characterized for their physicochemical properties. We determined the effect of biochar type and application rate. The biochar under study enhanced the seed germination and seedling growth significantly at a reasonable application rate than higher rate which might be due to secretion of chemical substances by the respective biochar. But the pine needle biochar (PNB) did not perform satisfactorily, and it may be due to lignin-rich feedstock. Both the maize stalk biochar (MSB) and
Lantana camara
biochar (LCB) showed slightly inhibitory effect at higher application rate due to presence of some heavy metals. However, the black gram biochar (BGB) performed well and constantly increased seed germination as well as seedling growth, and thus has a greater potential to increase its application rate under field condition. The shoot/root ration decreased with increase in biochar application rate. Our results offer new facts for the requirement of creating environmental risk management of biochar before its field soil application.
Utilizing of biochar as an amendment for environmental management has been a catalyst for the recent global enthusiasm for advancing biochar production technology and its management. While both ...research and development of biochar for environmental management at a global scale are a somewhat recent development, it is by no means new in certain regions and has even been the subject of scientific research for quite some time. This article deals with both positive and negative impacts of biochar application for environmental management and toxic pollutant remediation by collecting exponentially increased number of publications and summarizes it to explain that how biochar can enhance in greenhouse gasses (GHGs) emission reduction, wastewater reuse, fertilizer pollution minimizing, mineral nutrients leaching reduction, and land degradation with soil erosion management. It also provides new insights into the state-of-the-art accomplishments of biochar’s potential on the removal of heavy metal, toxic pollutant, and renewable energy generation was also considered. Biochar can significantly be used to trim down the leachability and bioavailability of different organic toxic pollutants via sorption mechanism. Increasing the carbon sink in soil through biochar application can help to reduce the amounts of carbon dioxide (CO
2
), methane (CH
4
), and nitrous oxide (N
2
O) emission in environment. The future researches should focus on the long-term environmental fate of organic pollutant sorbed on biochar.
Indiscriminate use of chemical fertilizers in the agricultural production systems to keep pace with the food and nutritional demand of the galloping population had an adverse impact on ecosystem ...services and environmental quality. Hence, an alternative mechanism is to be developed to enhance farm production and environmental sustainability. A nanohybrid construct like nanofertilizers (NFs) is an excellent alternative to overcome the negative impact of traditional chemical fertilizers. The NFs provide smart nutrient delivery to the plants and proves their efficacy in terms of crop productivity and environmental sustainability over bulky chemical fertilizers. Plants can absorb NFs by foliage or roots depending upon the application methods and properties of the particles. NFs enhance the biotic and abiotic stresses tolerance in plants. It reduces the production cost and mitigates the environmental footprint. Multitude benefits of the NFs open new vistas towards sustainable agriculture and climate change mitigation. Although supra-optimal doses of NFs have a detrimental effect on crop growth, soil health, and environmental outcomes. The extensive release of NFs into the environment and food chain may pose a risk to human health, hence, need careful assessment. Thus, a thorough review on the role of different NFs and their impact on crop growth, productivity, soil, and environmental quality is required, which would be helpful for the research of sustainable agriculture.
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•Nanofertilizers (NFs) are the best alternative to traditional chemical fertilizers.•Nutrients use efficiency of NFs is higher than the conventional chemical fertilizers.•NFs can increase the tolerance of plants against biotic and abiotic stresses.•Supra optimal dose of NFs had a negative impact on crops, soil, and the environment.
Experiment was conducted to assess the effect of combined application of biochar and organic manure amendment in an acidic hilly soil on grain quality, nutrient contents, biomolecular composition ...and biochemical response, and energy budgeting as well as soil quality under maize-black gram cropping system. Our results suggested that biochar application increased protein content. Lysine content decreased with manures addition and increase in biochar application rate. Hydration index, swelling index, water absorption capacity, and water uptake ratio increased in both the manures without biochar and manures with biochar. The seed density, foaming capacity, and foam stability increased significantly with addition of both manures without biochar and manures with biochar. Biochar application increased the nitrogenase activity. Manures without biochar application increased nodule relative water content and manures with biochar addition decreased nodule relative water content. Biochar application significantly decreased number of nodules per plant. Results revealed that protein, ash, tannin, C, N, P, K, Zn, Fe, Cu, Mn, and B content significantly increased and enhanced by both the manures without biochar and manures with biochar. The nodule soluble sugars were increased by manures and biochar application. Both the manures and biochar significantly enhanced all the energy related terminology in maize and black gram crop. Results suggest that biochar application may affect the grain quality in maize and black gram adversely and nutritional imbalance in grains might occur.
•Effective conservation tilling and diversified cropping improves soil C buildup.•Zero tilling had the highest SOC pool (25.24 Mg ha−1 at 0–10 cm depth).•Zero tilling reduced bulk density by 2.2 % at ...0–10 cm soil depth over CT.•Maize-black gram-buckwheat recorded a maximum SOC pool (24.98 Mg ha−1).
Ecological indicators are herculean contrivance for assessing management practices' impacts on environmental changes. Soil organic carbon (SOC) potentially regulates the agricultural sustainability. Unfortunately, the SOC has been widely degraded through unsustainable land uses and agricultural practices. Hence, the efficacy of conservation tilling and diversified cropping were assessed in terms of restoration of SOC and associated soil properties in fixed plots, which are related with farm productivity and other ecosystem services under organic production systems of the Indian Himalayas. Three tillage management were selected as treatments of the study: i) conventional tilling (CT), ii) reduced tilling (RT), and iii) Zero tilling (ZT) applied to four diversified cropping systems CS1- maize–black gram–toria, CS2 maize–black gram–buckwheat, CS3- maize–rajmash–toria and CS4 maize–rajmash–buckwheat. The ZT had the highest SOC content (19.58 g kg−1) as well as the C pool (25.24 Mg ha−1) at a soil depth of 0–10 cm. On the contrary, ZT had the lowest ρb (1.29 Mg m3) and soil penetration resistance (1.32 MPa) at 0–5 cm and 5–10 cm soil depth. Concerning SOC partitioning, regardless of soil depth, it had been evident that more SOC were allocated in the active pool over the passive pool. Out of the diversified cropping systems, the CS2 produced a considerably higher total carbon pool of 24.98, and 23.0 Mg ha−1 at 0–10 cm, and 10–20 cm soil depths, respectively, and active and passive C pools. Hence, abolition of tillage and cultivation of legume embedding cropping systems resulted as a sustainable management system under organic farming for SOC restoration and soil quality improvement in the Himalayan ecosystem. Thus, the study suggested that the cultivation of CS2 under ZT may be promoted for efficient land resource management planning in the study region of the Indian Himalayas.
The collective utilization of biochar and organic manure represents the profit to plants and nutrient cycling. In this experiment, the maize (stalk and cob) biomass was pyrolyzed at 600 °C and ...morpho-mineralogically characterized. The scanning electron microscope (SEM) image represented cross-linked pores and feathery plate–like layer construction on the surface of biochar. The 75:25 ratio combinations of organic manure and biochar were the best for developing low-cost biochar co-compost technology. The maximum increase in pH was observed in biochar-poultry manure (7.05) co-compost followed by pig manure (6.97), goat manure (9.93), vermicompost (6.85), and FYM (6.83) co-compost. The release of cumulative CO
2
decreased with increase in biochar ratio in biochar co-compost mixture. The organic manure/biochar (co-compost) ratio at 75:25 enhanced maximum yield in poultry manure (4528 and 1027 kg/ha) followed by goat manure (4378 and 1016 kg/ha), vermicompost (4278 and 986 kg/ha), pig manure (4218 and 956 kg/ha), and FYM (4178 and 949 kg/ha) for maize and black gram, respectively. The poultry
75
+BC
25
results in maximum grain nitrogen content in both maize and black gram and minimum with FYM
25
+BC
75
. Lastly, with increase in biochar ratio in co-compost, the specific leaf weight and chlorophyll content significantly increased. Thus, the encouraging role of biochar co-compost on crop growth, yield, soil health, and physiology proposes that it is a superior technique to overcome biochar’s intrinsic nutrient deficit, making it a proper way serving to refine farm-scale nutrient cycles.
Since studies on biochar stability in agricultural soils are very limited, the microbial biomass carbon and soil enzyme activity influenced by biochar addition to field condition remains uncertain. ...Results of this study revealed that microbial biomass carbon and different soil enzyme activity were significantly influenced by both manure alone and combined biochar-manure application. The microbial biomass carbon was highest in vermicompost (355.28 mg kg
−1
soil) and lowest in pig manure (343.62 mg kg
−1
soil). Among combined biochar-manure treatment, the MBC was highest in goat manure 5 t ha
−1
+ biochar 5 t ha
−1
(476.58 mg kg
−1
soil) and lowest in FYM @ 10 t ha
−1
+ biochar 5 t ha
−1
(458.53 mg kg
−1
soil) than control (301.43 mg kg
−1
soil). The dehydrogenase activity increased significantly with increase in biochar application rate. But acid phosphatase activity decreased with increase in biochar application rate. Urease activity was highest in poultry manure and lowest in pig manure. Vermicompost with biochar resulted maximum increase in protease and lowest in FYM with biochar. The specific UV absorbance (SUVA) increased with biochar application at 2.5 t ha
−1
and then again slightly decreased at 5.0 t ha
−1
significantly. Among the biochar-manure treatment, the fluorescein diacetate was highest in FYM @ 10 t ha
−1
+ biochar 5 t ha
−1
(66.29 mg of fluorescein kg
−1
oven dry soil h
−1
) and lowest in poultry manure 5 t ha
−1
+ biochar 5 t ha
−1
(56.36 mg of fluorescein kg
−1
oven dry soil h
−1
) than control from initial value (16.38 mg of fluorescein kg
−1
oven dry soil h
−1
). The vermicompost with biochar resulted maximum increase in invertase activity and lowest in goat manure with biochar. Finally, the microbial quotient decreased significantly with increase in biochar application rate. This is the first time report of examining microbial biomass carbon and soil enzyme activity using combined biochar and organic manure under an acidic hilly soil.
