Department of Soil and Climate Sciences, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, The University of Haripur, KPK, Pakistan.
Soils Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Mansoura University, Mansoura, 35516, Egypt.
Chemosphere. 2021 Sep;278:130378. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.130378. Epub 2021 Mar 28.
Biochar, over the last two decades, has become the focal point of agro-environmental research given its unique functionality, cost-effectiveness and recyclability potentials. It has been studied intensively as an efficient scavenger for the decontamination of several organic and inorganic pollutants. However, the ability of biochar to modulate nitrogen (N) dynamics in soil and terrestrial ecosystems remains controversial. This work deliberates on the premise that biochar functionality enables maximizing N use efficiency by reducing the potential losses induced by volatilization/emission and runoff/leaching as well as stimulating available N inputs derived from symbiotic and nonsymbiotic biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) and N mineralization/retention. For this purpose, we carried out a critical review on different intriguing dimensions surrounding the potentiality of biochar to modulate the complicated reactions of soil N cycle with emphasis on its pros and cons. Previous studies in the literature have shown contradictory results with a noticeable significant effect of biochar toward stimulating available N inputs and reducing its losses under short-term laboratory experimentations. However, long-term field investigations have indicated minimal or negative effects in this regard. Furthermore, some of the experimentations lack appropriate controls or fail to account for inputs or losses associated with biochar particles. It is thus of great importance to contextualise lab-scale experimentations based on real field data to provide a holistic approach for understanding the complicated reactions responsible for modulating N cycle in the charosphere. Additionally, biochar functionalization should be highlighted in the foreseeable research to develop fit-for-purpose forms tailored in agro-environmental applications.
生物炭在过去二十年中，因其独特的功能、成本效益和可回收性潜力，成为农业环境研究的焦点。它已被广泛研究作为一种有效的清除剂，用于去除多种有机和无机污染物。然而，生物炭调节土壤和陆地生态系统氮动态的能力仍然存在争议。这项工作的前提是，生物炭的功能可以通过减少挥发/排放和径流/淋失引起的潜在损失，以及刺激来自共生和非共生生物固氮（BNF）和氮矿化/保留的可用氮输入，来最大限度地提高氮利用效率。为此，我们对生物炭调节土壤氮循环复杂反应的潜力进行了批判性评估，重点关注其优缺点。文献中的先前研究表明，生物炭在短期实验室实验中对刺激可用氮输入和减少其损失具有显著的积极作用，但在长期田间调查中，其效果最小或为负。此外，一些实验缺乏适当的对照，或者没有考虑与生物炭颗粒相关的输入或损失。因此，根据实际田间数据将实验室规模的实验置于上下文中，对于提供一种整体方法来理解调节碳球氮循环的复杂反应非常重要。此外，在可预见的研究中应强调生物炭功能化，以开发适合农业环境应用的专用形式。
