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SOIL MOISTURE DIFFERENCES AT PLOTS WITH A FRESH AND AGED BIOCHAR
Abstract
Biochar, as a product of carbon-rich thermal degradation of biomass, can increase crop yield and retention capacity of soil, improve soil quality and nutrient cycle. The use of biochar has positive effect primarily on soils with low quality, so its use in conventional agricultural temperate soils has often different effects and depends especially on the biochar feedstock and the pyrolysis process. There are not many research papers which are studying changes in biochar properties over time, i.e. whether the biochar applied to the soil has the same properties after several years. In this paper, we focused on comparison the measured soil moisture differences at plots with biochar applied in March 2014 in the amount of 20 t/ha (aged biochar) and biochar in the same amount applied in March 2018 (fresh biochar). The measurements were carried out at silt loam soil during the 2018 vegetation period and the cultivated crop was spring barley (Hordeum vulgare L.). Soil moisture was measured by 5TM sensors. The results showed that soil moisture at aged biochar plots was comparable to soil moisture at fresh biochar plots during or after rain episodes. Larger differences were occurred during longer time of non-precipitation days, when soil moisture at fresh biochar plots was lower in comparison to aged biochar plots. This type of fresh biochar reduced the soil moisture during non-precipitation days and it can have a negative effect on vegetation, especially during the vegetation period.
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