A global synthesis of biochar's sustainability in climate-smart agriculture - Evidence from field and laboratory experiments

Abstract

Biochar amendment has been proposed as a promising solution to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agriculture and sustainably enhance crop yield. However, the net GHG mitigation potential of biochar remains uncertain, especially the controversial results from field and laboratory experiments. Using 9970 published observational data derived from 592 peer-reviewed papers, this study highlighted the effects of biochar in field experiments on crop yield, soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks, carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) fluxes, and soil nitrogen (N) dynamics (i.e., soil inorganic N stocks, nitrous oxide [N2O] emissions, ammonia [NH3] volatilization, and inorganic N leaching). Overall, field data indicated that biochar significantly increased gross SOC stocks (26.6%) and crop yield (15.7%), reduced soil CH4 (−14.8%) and N2O (−23.1%) emissions, and ammonium (−24.9%) and total inorganic N leaching (−23.2%) but had no effect on soil CO2 emissions. Whereas laboratory data generally showed greater effect sizes of biochar on these indictors. Global warming potential was decreased only in field experiments, but both experiments showed similar reductions in GHG intensity. Both experiments suggested that soil and biochar cation exchange capacity, pH, biochar application rate, and nitrogen fertilization interactively regulated biochar effects on crop yield and GHG emissions. The unrealistically high rates of biochar in laboratory experiments may overestimate its benefit on soil C sequestration and/or underestimate its mitigation potential. These findings provide a comprehensive view that biochar amendment may serve as a viable climate-smart agricultural practice that can help in partial achievement of multiple sustainable development goals.