Does the carbon skeleton of biochar contribute to soil phosphate sorption? A case study from paddy soils with woody biochar amendment
Guobing Qin A # , Xiao Yan A # , Jinju Wei A , Jianfu Wu A and Zongqiang Wei
A *
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A School of Land Resource and Environment, Key Laboratory of Agricultural Resource and Ecology in the Poyang Lake Basin of Jiangxi Province, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang 330045, China.
* Correspondence to: zqwei85@mail.jxau.edu.cn
# These authors contributed equally to this paper
Handling Editor: Sander Bruun
Soil Research 60(3) 242-251 https://doi.org/10.1071/SR21103
Submitted: 10 April 2021 Accepted: 30 September 2021 Published: 22 November 2021
© 2022 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing
Abstract
Context: The phosphorus (P) sorption capacity of biochar and the effects of biochar amendment on soil P sorption and availability remain uncertain.
Aims: This study determined the specific contributions of the biochar inorganic component (mineral ash) and its carbon skeleton to the P sorption capacity of biochar.
Methods: A woody biochar and its acid-washed counterpart were added to two types of paddy soils with two P-retention capacities: high P sorption (HPS) and low P sorption (LPS).
Key results: Washing biochar with HCl solution drastically decreased the concentrations of calcium, magnesium, iron (Fe), and aluminium (Al) in the biochar. However, Fourier transform infrared and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy spectra indicated that the washing procedure did not decrease the biochar organic carbon content and its surface functional groups. Acid-washed biochar showed nearly zero P sorption after 24 h of equilibration with P solution, and its incorporation had little effect on P sorption of the two paddy soils. Amendment with original alkaline woody biochar tended to increase P sorption capacity of LPS soils, but decreased that of HPS soils. The variations in Langmuir P sorption maxima, an indicator of soil P sorption capacity, among the soils and biochar treatments could be primarily explained by the amorphous Fe and Al concentrations, which indicates that the effect of biochar addition on soil P sorption was highly dependent on intrinsic soil P-retentive properties.
Conclusion: These results demonstrate that the biochar carbon skeleton had a very limited contribution to biochar P-retention capacity.
Implications: Our results suggest that the application of aged biochar with lower mineral contents to humid acidic highly weathered soils will have limited P retention capacity.
Keywords: amorphous iron and aluminum, biochar, carbon skeleton, Langmuir adsorption equation, multiple linear regression, paddysoil, phosphate sorption, phosphorus availability.
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