Carbon sequestration in a sandy soil amended with either organic wastes or their biochar in relation with lettuce productivity

Selim, Elmtwally; Khalifa, Ramy; Zidan, Dina; Beheary, Mokhtar

doi:10.21608/djas.2024.406064

Carbon sequestration in a sandy soil amended with either organic wastes or their biochar in relation with lettuce productivity

Document Type : Original research papers

Authors

¹ Soil and Water Department، Faculty of Agriculture، Damietta University, Egypt

² Soils and water department, Faculty of Agriculture, Damietta university, Damietta, Egypt

³ Soils and water department, Faculty of Agriculture, Damietta University, Damietta, Egypt

⁴ Environmental science department, Faculty of science, Port-said university

10.21608/djas.2024.406064

Abstract

One potential method of capturing atmospheric carbon and assisting in both climate
change adaptation and mitigation is the pyrolysis of biomass into biochar, which is then
added to soil. Intensive research on soil CO2 emission is necessary due to the lack of carbon
capture in soil. As a result, a pot experiment including sandy soil and five treatments was
carried out: (T0) Control (T1) compost derived from town refuse (CTR), (T2) fresh sewage
sludge (FSS), (T3) biochar derived from compost town refuse (BCTR) and (T4) biochar
derived from sewage sludge (BSS) to quantify CO2 emission and its effect on lettuce
growth. The CO2 emissions decreased in the biochar amended treatments, The biochar
augmented treatment represented a reduction in soil CO2 emissions, with the lowest value
(803 ppm) being recorded under BSS (T4) at the end of the experiment. The highest
vegetative parameters values of lettuce plants and organic carbon fractions dissolved
organic carbon (DOC), microbial organic carbon (MOC) and oxidized organic carbon
(OOC) of soils were achieved in BSS treatment (T4), while the lowest values were shown
in control treatment (T0). In addition to the pathogenic bacteria completely disappeared
from the residues after burning it at 500°C and turning into biochar. Therefore, using
biochar is an important technique for enhancing carbon sequestration, and improving soil
quality in arid regions.

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