Analyzing the impacts of three types of biochar on soil carbon fractions and physiochemical properties in a corn-soybean rotation.

Biochar is a solid material obtained when biomass is thermochemically converted in an oxygen-limited environment. In most previous studies, the impacts of biochar on soil properties and organic carbon (C) were investigated under controlled conditions, mainly laboratory incubation or greenhouse studies. This 2-year field study was conducted to evaluate the influence of biochar on selected soil physical and chemical properties and carbon and nitrogen fractions for two selected soil types (clay loam and a sandy loam soil) under a corn (Zea mays L.

Maize, switchgrass, and ponderosa pine biochar added to soil increased herbicide sorption and decreased herbicide efficacy.

Biochar, a by-product of pyrolysis made from a wide array of plant biomass when producing biofuels, is a proposed soil amendment to improve soil health. This study measured herbicide sorption and efficacy when soils were treated with low (1% w/w) or high (10% w/w) amounts of biochar manufactured from different feedstocks [maize (Zea mays) stover, switchgrass (Panicum vigatum), and ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa)], and treated with different post-processing techniques. Twenty-four hour batch equilibration measured sorption of (14)C-labelled atrazine or 2,4-D to two soil types with and without biochar amendments.

Rapid cost-effective analysis of microbial activity in soils using modified fluorescein diacetate method.

Fluorescein diacetate (FDA) is commonly used to determine the hydrolyzing activity of microbial organisms in the soil. However, the costs of chemical reagents and time required to perform routine analysis of large number of samples by soil testing laboratories are limiting. Moreover, existing methods generate significant volumes of hazardous waste.

Denitrification kinetics in biomass- and biochar-amended soils of different landscape positions.

Knowledge of how biochar impacts soil denitrification kinetics as well as the mechanisms of interactions is essential in order to better predict the nitrous oxide (N2O) mitigation capacity of biochar additions. This study had multiple experiments in which the effect of three biochar materials produced from corn stover (Zea mays L.), ponderosa pine wood residue (Pinus ponderosa Douglas ex Lawson and C.

Molecular characterization of biochars and their influence on microbiological properties of soil.

The tentative connection between the biochar surface chemical properties and their influence on microbially mediated mineralization of C, N, and S with the help of enzymes is not well established. This study was designed to investigate the effect of different biomass conversion processes (microwave pyrolysis, carbon optimized gasification, and fast pyrolysis using electricity) on the composition and surface chemistry of biochar materials produced from corn stover (Zea mays L.), switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.