Biochar Benefits Green Infrastructure: Global Meta-Analysis and Synthesis

Urbanization has degraded ecosystem services on a global scale, and cities are vulnerable to long-term stresses and risks exacerbated by climate change. Green infrastructure (GI) has been increasingly implemented in cities to improve ecosystem functions and enhance city resilience, yet GI degradation or failure is common. Biochar has been recently suggested as an ideal substrate additive for a range of GI types due to its favorable properties; however, the generality of biochar benefits the GI ecosystem function, and the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we present a global meta-analysis and synthesis and demonstrate that biochar additions pervasively benefit a wide range of ecosystem functions on GI. Biochar applications were found to improve substrate water retention capacity by 23% and enhance substrate nutrients by 12-31%, contributing to a 33% increase in plant total biomass. Improved substrate physicochemical properties and plant growth together reduce discharge water volume and improve discharge water quality from GI. In addition, biochar increases microbial biomass on GI by similar to 150% due to the presence of biochar pores and enhanced microbial growth conditions, while also reducing CO(2 )and N2O emissions. Overall results suggest that biochar has great potential to enhance GI ecosystem functions as well as urban sustainability and resilience.

Automated summary

A global meta-analysis and synthesis shows that biochar additions have pervasive benefits for ecosystem functions in green infrastructure (GI). These benefits include improving water retention capacity and nutrient content in substrate, increasing plant biomass, reducing discharge water volume, improving discharge water quality, increasing microbial biomass, and reducing CO2 and N2O emissions. This suggests that biochar has great potential to enhance urban sustainability and resilience through enhancing GI ecosystem functions.