Optimum biochar preparations enhance phosphorus availability in amended mollisols of Northeast China

Abstract

Biochar amendment to soils can improve soil P availability, but details on the optimum application of biochar to black soils in Northeast China are limited. Three types of biochar were produced at six pyrolysis temperatures (between 200 and 700 °C) and then added to black soil samples. P adsorption-desorption isotherms were fitted by the Langmuir model to evaluate the changes in soil P adsorption-desorption after biochar amendment. Changes in P adsorption and desorption depended on biochar feedstock type and pyrolysis temperature. When pyrolysis temperature increased up to 400 °C, P sorption maximum (Q m ) of soybean pod (SP) and soybean straw (SS) biochar-amended soils were enhanced from 855.65 and 428.84 mg kg -1 to 1666.67 and 1547.62 mg kg -1 , respectively, while a further increase in the pyrolysis temperature lowered the adsorption capacity. However, P adsorption of corncob (CC) biochar amended soils declined from 1428.57 mg kg -1 to 556.70 mg kg -1 as pyrolysis temperature increased. Higher P desorption in SP and SS compared with CC indicated that SP and SS biochar produced at higher than 400 °C pyrolysis temperatures were considered to be the optimum biochar to enhance P availability in the black soils of Northeast China.