title: Biochar Improves Soil Aggregate Stability and Water Availability in a Mollisol after Three Years of Field Application.
abstract: A field experiment was carried out to evaluate the effect of organic amendments on soil organic carbon, total nitrogen, bulk density, aggregate stability, field capacity and plant available water in a representative Chinese Mollisol. Four treatments were as follows: no fertilization (CK), application of inorganic fertilizer (NPK), combined application of inorganic fertilizer with maize straw (NPK+S) and addition of biochar with inorganic fertilizer (NPK+B). Our results showed that after three consecutive years of application, the values of soil bulk density were significantly lower in both organic amendment-treated plots than in unamended (CK and NPK) plots. Compared with NPK, NPK+B more effectively increased the contents of soil organic carbon, improved the relative proportion of soil macro-aggregates and mean weight diameter, and enhanced field capacity as well as plant available water. Organic amendments had no obvious effect on soil C/N ratio or wilting coefficient. The results of linear regression indicated that the improvement in soil water retention could be attributed to the increases in soil organic carbon and aggregate stability.
authors.affiliation: Soil Ecology and Agro-ecological Engineering Research Center, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110164, People`s Republic of China.
authors.forename: Ningning
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: Soil Ecology and Agro-ecological Engineering Research Center, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110164, People`s Republic of China.
authors.forename: Lili
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Soil Ecology and Agro-ecological Engineering Research Center, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110164, People`s Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yulan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Soil Ecology and Agro-ecological Engineering Research Center, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110164, People`s Republic of China.|Graduate School, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, People`s Republic of China.
authors.forename: Lijie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Soil Ecology and Agro-ecological Engineering Research Center, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110164, People`s Republic of China.|Graduate School, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, People`s Republic of China.
authors.forename: Chunxiao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Soil Ecology and Agro-ecological Engineering Research Center, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110164, People`s Republic of China.
authors.forename: Guanghua
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.affiliation: Department of Land, Air, and Water Resources, University of California Davis, Davis 95616, United State of America.
authors.forename: Timothy A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Doane
authors.affiliation: Soil Ecology and Agro-ecological Engineering Research Center, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110164, People`s Republic of China.
authors.forename: Zhijie
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Institute of Agricultural Resources and Environment, Jilin Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Changchun 130033, People`s Republic of China.
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Institute of Soil Fertilizer and Environmental Resources, Heilongjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Harbin, 150086, People`s Republic of China.
authors.forename: Xingzhu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ma
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture; D002244:Carbon / Q000032:analysis; D002606:Charcoal / Q000737:chemistry*; D055598:Chemical Phenomena; D002681:China; D009584:Nitrogen / Q000032:analysis; D012987:Soil / Q000737:chemistry*; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D012987:Soil; C540010:biochar; D014867:Water; D002606:Charcoal; D002244:Carbon; D009584:Nitrogen