Biochar amendment improves alpine meadows growth and soil health in Tibetan plateau over a three year period

Rafiq, Muhammad Khalid and Bai, Yanfu and Aziz, Rukhsanda and Rafiq, Muhammad Tariq and Mašek, Ondřej and Bachmann, Robert Thomas and Joseph, Stephen and Shahbaz, Maqbool and Qayyum, Abdul and Shang, Zhanhuan and Danaee, Mahmoud and Long, Ruijun (2020) Biochar amendment improves alpine meadows growth and soil health in Tibetan plateau over a three year period. Science of The Total Environment, 717. p. 135296. ISSN 0048-9697, DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.135296.

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.135296

Abstract

Previous biochar research has primarily focused on agricultural annual cropping systems with very little attention given to highly fragile, complex and diverse natural alpine grassland ecosystems. The present study investigated the effect of biochar on the growth of alpine meadows and soil health. This study was conducted in the Qinghai Tibetan Plateau over a three year period to investigate the effect of three rice husk biochar application rates alone and combination with high and low NPK fertilizer dosages on alpine meadow productivity, soil microbial diversity as well as pH, carbon and nitrogen content at 0–10 cm and 10–20 cm depth. At the end of the 3rd year soil samples were analysed and assessed by combined analysis of variance. The results showed that biochar application in combination with nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) fertilizer had a significant increase in fresh and dry biomass during the second and third year of the study as compared to control and alone biochar application (p ≤ 0.05). Biochar alone and in combination with NPK fertilizer resulted in a significant increase in the soil pH and carbon contents of the soil. XPS results, the SEM imaging and EDS analysis of aged biochar demonstrated that the biochar has undergone complex changes over the 3 years as compared to fresh biochar. This research suggests that biochar has positive effect on alpine meadow growth and soil health and may be an effective tool for alpine meadow restoration. © 2019 Elsevier B.V.

Item Type: Article
Funders: UNSPECIFIED
Uncontrolled Keywords: Biochar; Alpine meadows; Soil health
Subjects: Q Science > Q Science (General)
Divisions: Faculty of Medicine
Depositing User: Ms. Juhaida Abd Rahim
Date Deposited: 14 Aug 2020 06:30
Last Modified: 14 Aug 2020 06:30
URI: http://eprints.um.edu.my/id/eprint/25362

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