ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Soil Sci.
Sec. Soil Management
Mesoporous biochar reshapes soil water dynamics under shallow groundwater: interactions with nitrogen management
Provisionally accepted
Maha Elbana1*
Rania Gamal2
Mohammed A. El-Shirbeny3Mohamed Rashad4Youssef Brouziyne5Ayman F. Abou Hadid6- 1Beni-Suef University Faculty of Agriculture, Beni Suef, Egypt
- 2International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas Egypt, Cairo, Egypt
- 3National Authority for Remote Sensing & Space Sciences, El-Nozha El-Gedida, Egypt
- 4City of Scientific Research and Technological Applications, New Borg El-Arab City, Egypt
- 5International Water Management Institute, Cairo, Egypt
- 6Ain Shams University Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo, Egypt
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Shallow groundwater tables influence nearly one-quarter of global croplands, yet the role of biochar in such hydropedological settings remains poorly understood. This study investigated how mesoporous biochar interacts with nitrogen fertilization to modify soil properties, water dynamics, and irrigation requirements in a clay loam soil of the Nile Delta, Egypt. A two-season field experiment using randomized complete block design tested biochar (35 t ha-1) combined with three nitrogen levels (100, 80, and 50% of the common farmer practice). Biochar significantly increased available N, Ca, and Mg and altered soil moisture profile: Instead of monotonic moisture increase typical of shallow groundwater conditions, an S-shaped distribution developed within the 0-30 cm layer. Drainage losses consistently declined when biochar was combined with moderate nitrogen input. Although crop yield and fruit quality responses were not statistically significant, the biochar-nitrogen combination reduced irrigation demand by~82 m3 ha-1 yr-1 compared to conventional management. When scaled regionally under same environmental conditions, this strategy could save >80 million m3 of irrigation water annually in Egypt, assuming 100% irrigation efficiency. These findings show that mesoporous biochar can reshape root-zone water dynamics under shallow groundwater, offering a promising strategy to enhance water-use efficiency in water-scarce regions.
Keywords: soil water retention, Water productivity, Water savings, Fine-textured soil, Tomato
Received: 05 Oct 2025; Accepted: 18 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Elbana, Gamal, El-Shirbeny, Rashad, Brouziyne and Abou Hadid. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Maha Elbana, maha.elbana@agr.bsu.edu.eg
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