Organic coating on biochar explains its nutrient retention and stimulation of soil fertility
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Machine scores (provisional)
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- 0.240 · how far apart the two teachers sit on this one work
- Validation status
score_only:v0-immature-baseline· verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from it
Abstract
Amending soil with biochar (pyrolized biomass) is suggested as a globally applicable approach to address climate change and soil degradation by carbon sequestration, reducing soil-borne greenhouse-gas emissions and increasing soil nutrient retention. Biochar was shown to promote plant growth, especially when combined with nutrient-rich organic matter, e.g., co-composted biochar. Plant growth promotion was explained by slow release of nutrients, although a mechanistic understanding of nutrient storage in biochar is missing. Here we identify a complex, nutrient-rich organic coating on co-composted biochar that covers the outer and inner (pore) surfaces of biochar particles using high-resolution spectro(micro)scopy and mass spectrometry. Fast field cycling nuclear magnetic resonance, electrochemical analysis and gas adsorption demonstrated that this coating adds hydrophilicity, redox-active moieties, and additional mesoporosity, which strengthens biochar-water interactions and thus enhances nutrient retention. This implies that the functioning of biochar in soil is determined by the formation of an organic coating, rather than biochar surface oxidation, as previously suggested.
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The record
- Venue
- Nature Communications
- Topic
- Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics
- Field
- Agricultural and Biological Sciences
- Canadian institutions
- —
- Funders
- Division of Materials ResearchNational Research Council CanadaWestern Economic Diversification CanadaNatural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of CanadaCanadian Light SourceU.S. Department of AgricultureRosa Luxemburg StiftungBundesministerium für Bildung und ForschungEuropean CommissionNational High Magnetic Field LaboratoryTU Graz, Internationale Beziehungen und MobilitätsprogrammeFlorida State UniversityNational Institute of Food and AgricultureUniversity of SaskatchewanHigh Magnetic Field Laboratory, Chinese Academy of SciencesCanadian Institutes of Health ResearchNational Science Foundation
- Keywords
- BiocharNutrientSoil fertilityStimulationSoil nutrientsEnvironmental scienceAgronomyNutrient cycleChemistryBiologySoil waterSoil scienceEcologyPyrolysisEndocrinology
- Has abstract in OpenAlex
- yes