Influence of a biochar application on a sandy-loam soil water retention properties

Year, pages: 2016, 279 - 286

Improving the physical properties of soils is an important factor in increasing agricultural production. For this purpose a variety of organic materials are used, one of which is the biochar. The biochar increases soil porosity, absorbs water and nutrients, which is beneficial to the healthy plant development. On the market there are different types of biochar, whose properties are not yet fully known. In this work have been tested retention properties of biochar supplied by the company Sonnenerde (Austria) and also mixtures of biochar and sandy-loam soil, on disturbed samples in laboratory. The measurements confirmed the improved retention capacity of this kind of biochar but only in relatively small range of pressure heads from 0 to -100 cm. Retention of pure biochar was larger up to 27 vol.% compared with retention of a soil without biochar. In soil samples with portion of biochar corresponding to 80 t⋅ha-1 this difference was only 3 vol.%. In soil samples with portion of biochar up to 40 t⋅ha-1 no difference was observed compared to soil samples without applied biochar.

Hlaváčiková, H., Brezianská, K., Novák, V. 2016. Influence of a biochar application on a sandy-loam soil water retention properties. In Acta Hydrologica Slovaca, vol. 17, no.2, pp. 279-286. 2644-4690.

Hlaváčiková, H., Brezianská, K., Novák, V. (2016). Influence of a biochar application on a sandy-loam soil water retention properties. Acta Hydrologica Slovaca, 17(2), 279-286. 2644-4690.