Heterogeneous global crop yield response to biochar: a meta-regression analysis
TLDR
In this article, the authors employ meta-analytical, missing data, and semiparametric statistical methods to explain heterogeneity in crop yield responses across different soils, biochars, and agricultural management factors, and then estimate potential changes in yield across different soil environments globally.Abstract:
Biochar may contribute to climate change mitigation at negative cost by sequestering photosynthetically fixed carbon in soil while increasing crop yields. The magnitude of biochar's potential in this regard will depend on crop yield benefits, which have not been well-characterized across different soils and biochars. Using data from 84 studies, we employ meta-analytical, missing data, and semiparametric statistical methods to explain heterogeneity in crop yield responses across different soils, biochars, and agricultural management factors, and then estimate potential changes in yield across different soil environments globally. We find that soil cation exchange capacity and organic carbon were strong predictors of yield response, with low cation exchange and low carbon associated with positive response. We also find that yield response increases over time since initial application, compared to non-biochar controls. High reported soil clay content and low soil pH were weaker predictors of higher yield response. No biochar parameters in our dataset—biochar pH, percentage carbon content, or temperature of pyrolysis—were significant predictors of yield impacts. Projecting our fitted model onto a global soil database, we find the largest potential increases in areas with highly weathered soils, such as those characterizing much of the humid tropics. Richer soils characterizing much of the world's important agricultural areas appear to be less likely to benefit from biochar.read more
Citations
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Competing uses for China's straw: the economic and carbon abatement potential of biochar
Abbie Clare,Abbie Clare,Simon Shackley,Stephen Joseph,Stephen Joseph,Stephen Joseph,James Hammond,James Hammond,Genxing Pan,A. Anthony Bloom +9 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors compared the economic viability and carbon abatement potential of biochar production via pyrolysis, with that of bioenergy production via briquetting and gasification.
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Wheat growth and yield responses to biochar addition under Mediterranean climate conditions
Manuel Olmo,José Antonio Alburquerque,Vidal Barrón,María Carmen del Campillo,Antonio Gallardo,Mariano Fuentes,Rafael Villar +6 more
TL;DR: In this article, the effects of the addition of a slow pyrolysis biochar (produced from olive-tree pruning) to a vertisol were studied in a field experiment during one wheat (Triticum durum L.) growing season.
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Emissions and Char Quality of Flame-Curtain "Kon Tiki" Kilns for Farmer-Scale Charcoal/Biochar Production
Gerard Cornelissen,Naba Raj Pandit,Paul Taylor,Bishnu Hari Pandit,Magnus Sparrevik,Hans-Peter Schmidt +5 more
TL;DR: The flame curtain kilns represent a promising possibility for sustainable rural biochar production with benefits such as high quality biochar, low emission, no need for start-up fuel, fast pyrolysis time and, importantly, easy and cheap construction and operation.
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Optimal bioenergy power generation for climate change mitigation with or without carbon sequestration.
TL;DR: It is shown that despite BECCS offering twice the carbon sequestration and bioenergy per unit biomass, BEBCS may allow earlier deployment of CDR at lower carbon prices when long-term improvements in soil fertility offset biochar production costs.
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Plant growth-promoting effects of Hartmannibacter diazotrophicus on summer barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) under salt stress
Christian Suarez,Massimiliano Cardinale,Stefan Ratering,Diedrich Steffens,Stephan Jung,Ana Maria Zapata Montoya,Rita Geissler-Plaum,Sylvia Schnell +7 more
TL;DR: The capability of strain E19T to colonize barley roots under salt stress conditions was revealed with a specific designed fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) probe, and indicates that the mode of action is based on ACC-deaminase production.
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