Biochar Addition Affecting Soil Physical, Chemical, and Biological Properties

Biochar is a solid carbon-based material that has porous surface structure and high carbon content. Wide attention has been drawn on biochar for its important role in soil nutrient amendment, pollution remediation and waste recycling. Biochar also attracts increasing attention for its potential application in carbon sequestration, bioenergy, and biofuel production. Biochar is commonly produced by biomass pyrolysis with limited oxygen. The biochar properties are largely determined by pyrolysis temperature, duration time, technique and feedstock source. During the biochar application for agriculture and environment, the different properties of biochar may lead to various changes of soil properties. It is highly related to the changes of soil hydrological properties, soil elemental cycles, crop growth and etc.

With unique characteristics, biochar can influence a range of soil physical (e.g., bulk density, porosity and etc.), chemical (e.g., pH, nutrients and etc.) and biological properties (e.g., microbial activity, communities and etc.). It is essential to understand how the soil properties would respond to biochar addition. Besides soil fundamental properties, biochar addition may lead to changes in other important soil structures and composition. Soil aggregation is most likely influenced by biochar, for instance, aggregate weight, size distribution, stability and formation. Soil redox reaction of soil iron minerals or contaminations is also manipulated by the redox capacity of biochar. Microbe-induced degradation of soil organic matter would be due to biochar addition. To better elaborate the effects of biochar on soil properties, it is requested to emphasize the mechanism exploration of the change so either soil physical structure or chemical component and to what extent to soil hydrogeological property caused by biochar.

This Research Topic welcomes all authors, readers and researchers to contribute their knowledge to improve the understanding of the effects of biochar on soil properties from wide perspectives. All the research types including field observation, laboratory work, modeling, and statistical analysis are encouraged to present their novel ideas about explaining the mechanisms of soil changes due to either short- or long-term biochar application. This Research Topic focuses on but are not limited to the following aspects:

• Biochar characteristics with pyrolysis processes.

• Observed or predicted changes of soil properties with biochar addition.

• Soil hydrological property alternation with biochar addition.

• Potential effects of biochar addition on agriculture and ecosystem.

Keywords: Biochar addition, soil structure, soil component, hydrological properties, microbial process

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