First chapter from EU COST Action "Biochar" final publication published!

Recently, several milestone publications of biochar have been published, among others, the second issue of "Biochar for Environmental Management" (2015) and this year, "Biochar in European Soils and Agriculture" (2016). Now we are happy to announce that the first chapter of the final publication of the EU COST Action "Biochar as option for sustainable resource management" (2017) is just today published in the journal Journal of Environmental Engineering and Landscape Management.


In the first chapter, Biochars in soils: towards the required level of scientific understanding by Priit Tammeorg and 32 co-authors, we identified key priorities in biochar research for future guidance of sustainable policy development . The current level of scientific understanding (LOSU) regarding the consequences of biochar application to soil were explored. Five broad thematic areas of biochar research were addressed: soil biodiversity and ecotoxicology, soil organic matter and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, soil physical properties, nutrient cycles and crop production, and soil remediation. The highest future research priorities regarding biochar’s effects in soils were: functional redundancy within soil microbial communities, bioavailability of biochar’s contaminants to soil biota, soil organic matter stability, GHG emissions, soil formation, soil hydrology, nutrient cycling due to microbial priming as well as altered rhizosphere ecology, and soil pH buffering capacity. Methodological and other constraints to achieve the required LOSU are discussed and options for efficient progress of biochar research and sustainable application to soil are presented. This, as well as the forthcoming chapters in that final publication of the COST action will be Open Access, so free to download and distribute!