Co-application of biochar and organic amendments on soil greenhouse gas emissions: A meta-analysis

Biochar has been shown to reduce soil greenhouse gas (GHG) and increase nutrient retention in soil; however, the interaction between biochar and organic amendments on GHG emissions remain largely unclear. In this study, we collected 162 two-factor observations to explore how biochar and organic amendments jointly affect soil GHG emissions. Our results showed that biochar addition significantly increased soil CO2 emission by 8.62 %, but reduced CH4 and N2O emissions by 27.0 % and 23.9 %, respectively. Meanwhile, organic amendments and the co-application with biochar resulted in an increase of global warming potential based on the 100-year time horizon (GWP100) by an average of 18.3 % and 26.1 %. More importantly, the interactive effect of bio -char and organic amendments on CO2 emission was antagonistic (the combined effect was weaker than the sum of their individual effects), while additive on CH4 and N2O emissions. Additionally, our results suggested that when biochar is co-applied with organic amendments, soil GHG emissions were largely influenced by soil initial total carbon, soil texture, and biochar feedstocks. Our work highlights the important interactive effects of biochar and organic amendments on soil GHG emissions, and provides new insights for promoting ecosystem sustain ability as well as mitigating future climate change.

Automated summary

This study collected 162 two-factor observations to investigate the joint effects of biochar and organic amendments on soil greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The results showed that biochar addition increased soil CO2 emissions by 8.62%, but decreased CH4 and N2O emissions by 27.0% and 23.9% respectively. Moreover, the co-application of organic amendments and biochar resulted in an average increase of 18.3% and 26.1% in the global warming potential based on the 100-year time horizon (GWP100). The interactive effect of biochar and organic amendments on CO2 emissions was antagonistic, while additive on CH4 and N2O emissions.