Subin Kalu will defend the doctoral dissertation on 2 Sep 2022

 On Friday, 2 September, our group member Subin Kalu will publicly defend his a dissertation that shows biochar can be a promising tool in mitigating the environmental impacts of agriculture also in Finland. He found that biochar addition to soil can reduce nitrogen leaching from agricultural soils to waterways, and reduce the emissions of N₂O, a potent greenhouse gas.   The public examination will take place at the following address: EE-Building, Walter Hall, Agnes Sjöberginkatu 2 at 12 o'clock. 

Subin Kalu preparing for thesis defense

Professor Claudia Kammann, Hochschule Geisenheim University, will serve as the opponent, and those interested are welcome also to listen to her talk on 1 September  on the topic “Biochar use in agriculture, urban landscapes and building materials: An underestimated NET with benefits and economic prospects”. The talk will start at 14:30, at Latokartanonkaari 7, B-building/Forest Sciences building, Seminar room 332, 3^rd floor.

 Subin did his PhD at the Faculty of Agricultural and Forest Sciences, in a joint collaboration between researchers from the Department of Forest Sciences and Agricultural Sciences as well as with researchers from Natural Resources Institute Finland (LUKE) and the Finnish Meteorological Institute.

In his dissertation, Subin  studied the long-term effects of biochars in four different agricultural field experiments in southern Finland where biochars were applied two to eight years before. Subin says, “Although the effects of biochars were not consistent throughout these years, some improvements in plant growth were observed when the previous growing seasons were planted with legumes. This special biochar and pre-crop effect warrants further study”. He added, “in some cases, biochars showed tendencies to improve agricultural benefits such as increases in crop yield, soil nitrate retention and plant nitrogen uptake while reducing the negative environmental effects such as decreases in soil N₂O emissions and nitrate leaching”.

 

Even if the observed positive agricultural and environmental effects were not consistent in all fields in the long-term, no negative effects of biochar were observed over these study periods. This indicates that the application of biochar in agricultural soils is a safe way of enhancing soil carbon storage.

Warm welcome!

Dissertation in electronic form: http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-51-8233-3

Our field experiments in Estonia harvested for 2022!

 Great success! Just before the rains we managed to sample and harvest our recycling fertilizer experiments focusing on granular fertilisers based on oil-shale ash and lime enriched with essential soil nutrients in Ahja and Aovere fields in Southern Estonia. The growing season was rather dry also in Estonia, but preliminary results are promising, both 2,5 t/ha and 5 t/ha application rates of fertilizer seemed to increase the yields. Next we will analyze the samples and finalize project reporting.

Dream Team of AgriChar group together with Estonian University of Life Sciences people managed well to sample and harvest the plots!

In this project we work in synergy with Estonian NGO Soil Innovation Cluster and Estonian University of Life Sciences, University of Tartu  and Ekosovellus and the aim of our work package is to test most suitable fertilizer recipes. Stay tuned for the results and check also other interesting results from the Cluster website https://soilprotection.earth!

Further, also our sediment recycling long-term field experiment and biochar drainage experiment were also sampled for plant and soil samples, as well as for leachate samples. And, of course, also the GHG emissions from the biochar and control treatments. This project is funded by Tiina and Antti Herlin Foundation, August Johannes and Aino Tiura Foundation as well as Emil Aaltonen Foundation. Thanks Mina, Subin and Jure for the excellent job!