Does biochar accelerate the mitigation of greenhouse gaseous emissions from agricultural soil? - A global meta-analysis

Greenhouse gaseous (GHGs) emissions from cropland soils are one of the major contributors to global warming. However, the extent and pattern of these climatic breakdowns are usally determined by the management practices in-place. The use of biochar on cropland soils holds a great promise for increas...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Shakoor, Awais; Arif, Muhammad Saleem; Shahzad, Sher Muhammad; Farooq, Taimoor Hassan; Ashraf, Fatima; Mohsin Altaf, Muhammad; Waqas, Ahmed; Aammar Tufail, Muhammad; Ashraf, Muhammad
Format: Article
Status:Accepted version
Publication date:2021
Country:España
Institution:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
Repository:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
OAI Identifier:oai:recercat.cat:10459.1/73210
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2021.111789
http://hdl.handle.net/10459.1/73210
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Organic amendment
Global warming
Cropland soils
Climate mitigation
Agricultural sustainability
Description
Summary:Greenhouse gaseous (GHGs) emissions from cropland soils are one of the major contributors to global warming. However, the extent and pattern of these climatic breakdowns are usally determined by the management practices in-place. The use of biochar on cropland soils holds a great promise for increasing the overall crop productivity. Nevertheless, biochar application to agricultural soils has grown in popularity as a strategy to off-set the negative feedback associated with agriculture GHGs emissions, i.e., CO2 (carbon dioxide), CH4 (methane), and N2O (nitrous oxide). Despite increasing efforts to uncover the potential of biochar to mitigate the farmland GHGs effects, there has been little synthesis of how different types of biochar affect GHGs fluxes from cropland soils under varied experimental conditions. Here, we presented a meta-analysis of the interactions between biochar and GHGs emissions across global cropland soils, with field experiments showing the strongest GHG mitigation potential, i.e. CO2 (RR = −0.108) and CH4 (RR = −0.399). The biochar pyrolysis temperature, feedstock, C: N ratio, and pH were also found to be important factors influencing GHGs emissions. A prominent reduction in N2O (RR = −0.13) and CH4 (RR = −1.035) emissions was observed in neutral soils (pH = 6.6-7.3), whereas acidic soils (pH ≤ 6.5) accounted for the strongest mitigation effect on CO2 compared to N2O and CH4 emissions. We also found that a biochar application rate of 30 t ha−1 was best for mitigating GHGs emissions while achieving optimal crop yield. According to our meta-analysis, maize crop receiving biochar amendment showed a significant mitigation potential for CO2, N2O, and CH4 emissions. On the other hand, the use of biochar had shown significant impact on the global warming potential (GWP) of total GHGs emissions. The current data synthesis takes the lead in analyzing emissions status and mitigation potential for three of the most common GHGs from cropland soils and demonstrates that biochar application can significantly reduce the emissions budget from agriculture.