Long-Term Successive Seasonal Application of Rice Straw-Derived Biochar Improves the Acidity and Fertility of Red Soil in Southern China

Abstract

Soil acidity is a crop production problem of increasing concern in acid red soil. The potential of biochar as a soil amendment/for soil acid management in agricultural fields is a recently recognized yet underutilized technology. Related evidence is currently limited to short-term indoor experiments with one-time BC applications and no crop cultivation, yet the degree to which soil acidity may be impacted by the biochar aging process on long-time scale remains unclear. To evaluate the effects of successive seasonal applications of rice straw-derived biochar (BC) on acidity and fertility of soil, a five-year outdoor column trial was conducted using wheat-millet rotated acidic upland soils from the south of China. BC was applied to the top 0–15 cm of soil at the rates of 0 (BC0), 2.25 (BCL), and 22.5 (BCM) Mg ha−1 with an identical dose of NPK fertilizers at the beginning of each crop season. Our results showed that the wheat-millet biomass yield gradually decreased over five rotation cycles in BC0 without BC application. In contrast, after five rotations, BCM led to an increase in the total wheat/millet grain yield by 138%, and the straw yield increased by 253% compared to the control. The cumulative above-ground nutrient uptake of P, K, Ca, Na, and Mg in BCM also increased by 139%, 171%, 129%, 182%, and 71%, respectively, compared to that in the control. This positive effect was attributed to the increase in soil pH (3.29 units), cation exchange capacity (5.66 cmol kg−1), soil available P (241%), K (513%), Ca (245%), Mg (265%), exchange base (3.36 cmol kg−1), base saturation percentage (65.7%), and decrease in the exchangeable acidity, especially exchangeable Al3+ content (<0.1 cmol kg−1). Our results demonstrated that rice straw-derived BC application to soil at 22.5 t ha−1 was found to be highly consistent in decreasing soil acidity and reducing soluble and exchangeable Al3+, indicating its higher ameliorating capacity in the south of China in the long run.