Biochar in Forestry
- Key Staff:
- Dr. Saran P. Sohi, Prof. Ondřej Mašek, Hamish Creber
Biochar in UK Forestry: Phosphorus delivery through biochar amendment in forest establishment.
The opportunities of utilising biochar in temperate production forestry as a targeted fertiliser on nutrient limited planting sites is to be studied in this project. Improvements in tree growth and limiting phosphorus deficiency in conifer seedlings, using high native and infused P biochars, has the potential to compensate for soil P loss through timber removal and soil disturbance. With collaboration between the University of Edinburgh and Forest Research, future industry implementation of pyrolysis technology and biochar products in the forestry and wood processing industries is to be assessed.
The project is also to study the nutrient transfer pathways ,and capture, between ECM fungi and biochars in Pinus sylvestris seedlings using labelled N leaf litter. This will enhance understanding of the role of ECM fungi and biochar in reducing N loss through leaching and explore the mechanisms of nutrient capture in biochar.
This project is supervised by Dr Saran Sohi and Dr Ondrej Masek (UKBRC, University of Edinburgh) with Dr Mike Perks (Forest Research). It is supported financially by the NERC E3 DTP program, the School of GeoSciences (University of Edinburgh) and Forest Research.