Use of biochar in management of organic amendments in grassland agriculture
- Key Staff:
- Dr. Saran P. Sohi
- Timescale:
- Sept 2009 to August 2012
- Funding:
- Independent
The surfaces of biochar particles have some – apparently variable and increasing – capacity to bind nutrient cations including ammonium. This and the affect of some types of biochar on the dynamics of water in soil may affect and possibly benefit the timing and extent of nutrient provision from the soil to the crop.
If managed correctly the application of slurry and manure from livestock to the soil can offer an important contribution to growth of grazed grass. However, weather and growth patterns can make managing this precisely quite difficult.
Teri's project investigated whether the combination of biochar and slurry in dairy systems could offer a practical means to transfer stabilised carbon to the soil, at the same time as moderating the release of nutrients / emission of greenhouse gases. This involved a series of controlled environments in Edinburgh (two published, two submitted) - and a field-based on-farm experiments in California.
In follow-on work in conjunction with SRUC (Carbon Management Centre), a plot-scale experiment is underway as part of Nicola Winning's PhD project.
Publications:
Angst, T.E., Sohi, S.P. (2013) Establishing release dynamics for plant nutrients from biochar, GCB Bioenergy, 5:221-226
Angst, T.E., Patterson, C.J., Reay, D.S., Anderson, P., Peshkur, T.A., Sohi, S.P. (2013) Biochar diminishes nitrous oxide and nitrate leaching from diverse nutrient sources. Journal of Environmental Quality 42:672-82
Angst, T.E. (2013) Evaluating the Impacts of Biochar on the Fate and Dynamics of Dairy Manure in Agricultural Soil. PhD thesis, University of Edinburgh, School of GeoSciences, 237pp.
Sohi, S.P. (2012) Carbon storage with benefits, Science, 338: 1034-1035
Angst, T.E., Six, J., Reay, D.S., Sohi, S.P. (2014) Impact of pine chip biochar on trace greenhouse gas emissions and soil nutrient dynamics in an annual ryegrass system in California. Agroecosystems and the Environment 191:17-26
Cabeza I, Waterhouse T, Sohi SP and Rooke JA. 2018. Effect of biochar produced from different biomass sources and at different process temperatures on methane production and ammonia concentrations in vitro. Animal Feed Science and Technology 237: 1–7