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, 3rd 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
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