First field study focusing on agroforestry and biochar in semi-arid regions: biochar increased soil C, K and water

 

Field location

We studied the effects of tree (Acacia seyal Del.) intercropping and 10 t/ha biochar addition on soil properties and sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) yields in a two-year field experiment in South Sudan.

 We found that two acacia treatments had lowered soil pH, N and had higher C/N ratios when compared to sole sorghum treatments. While biochar had significantly increased soil carbon, exchangeable K+ contents,field capacity and available water content had reduced soil exchangeable Ca2+ and effective CEC, and no effect was observed on soil pH. Acacia treatments had significantly reduced sorghum grain yields whereas, biochar treatments did not demonstrate significance effects on sorghum yields. The land equivalent ratio for sorghum yield was 0.3 for both acacia systems in 2011, with or without biochar, but increased in 2012 to 0.6 for the scattered acacia system when combined with biochar.


The lead researcher of the project, Mr. Biar Deng from the AgriChar group of University of Helsinki, continues to explore the effects of biochar in semi-arid conditions and is currently working on a greenhouse study on the same topic. Stay tuned!


Read more from :


Deng, B., Tammeorg, P., Luukkanen, O., Helenius, J., Starr, M. (2017). Effects of Acacia seyal and biochar on soil properties and sorghum yield in agroforestry systems in South Sudan. Agroforest Syst (91):137–148. DOI 10.1007/s10457-016-9914-2.

The 2017 field season has started for biochar experiments

AgriChar research group has been working especially hard the past month to get started this years field experiments.

This year we are involved in seven (!) field experiments! Starting from the two long-term experiments in Viikki (one has just entered into its eight growing season!) to several new experiments in Finland and Estonia. One especially intriguing case study in Estonia focuses on the environmentally best practice for recycling nutrients from eutrophicated waterbodies.

Our people are involved also in HYKERRYS project that includes four new field experiments in Southern Finland and there also other soil amendment materials than biochar are being tested. The peas in the long-term Viikki experiments looked happy on 9th of June (see below). Let's see, if the promising trends first time noticed in the seventh growing season, where peas seemed to benefit from biochar more than other crops, will get stronger!

The growing season 2017 has started!

Welcome to the biochar session in 22nd International Conference on Environmental Indicators, 1-5 August 2017 in Helsinki, Finland!

Dear biochar friends,

It is my pleasure to invite you to participate the  22nd International Conference on Environmental Indicators, 1-5 August 2017 in Helsinki, Finland!


Check out the intriguing conference programme and submit you abstract to one of the various special sessions by May 15!


Looking forward to see you there!


Kind regards,
Priit

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MICROBIOME AND HEALTH: INDICATIONS OF SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE AND FOOD-CHAIN BE A PRESENTER Participants interested in presenting a poster or oral presentation at ICEI 2017 are invited to submit their abstracts online. We look forward to receiving your crucial research that will contribute to the first-class scientific program and be published in the ISEI Journal: Journal of Environmental Indicators. A GLOBAL PROGRAM Working in collaboration with the Local Organizing Committee, the International Scientific Advisory Committee will ensure a truly global approach to the discussions of significant new developments, overall views and scientific advancements. SPECIAL SYMPOSIUM One of the special program sessions is the Sustainable Agriculture Symposium which will be held at the Helsinki University Viikki campus. The symposium will include topics such as biofortified agriculture and a discussion on the topic "Food Crisis is Soil Crisis".

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The first biochar plant of City of Stockholm up and running!

Last week some great news came in: finally the Pyreg plant of Stockholm is operational!

A first-of-its-kind project, the facility turns plant waste from parks and homes – everything from grass clippings to trees and limbs – into carbon-capturing charcoal that residents can then use in their window boxes and gardens to promote plant growth. Biochar is a powerful soil conditioner, it decreases carbon-dioxide levels in the atmosphere and, through its production, it will even create enough energy to provide heat and hot water for more than 80 apartments in the city.

The facility opened on March 29th is the first of five planned as part of the Stockholm Biochar Project, a Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Mayors Challenge winning entry from 2014. Together, the five plants are expected to produce 7,000 tons of biochar over the next three years – sequestering enough carbon to take the equivalent of 3,500 cars off Stockholm’s streets.

As the biochar pioneer of Stockholm, tree officer Björn Embrén commented: "despite the extreme complications, such as choosing the location for biochar production, the benefits are so great that the process was worth the hassle. Even if you have to think twice to find solutions for your challenges – and this slows down the project – the ends make it worth it."

See more: https://www.bloomberg.org/blog/stockholm-biochar-project-mayors-challenge-winner-opens-first-plant/
http://www.stockholmvattenochavfall.se/avfall-och-atervinning/utvecklingsprojekt/biokol/
https://www.bbhub.io/dotorg/sites/2/2017/03/Replicating-in-Stockholm.pdf

The AgriChar research group congratulates Stockholm for this milestone step and hopes we soon see mushrooming of biochar projects in different municipalities! 

The below photos are from Bloomberg and City of Stockholm PR feeds. People seem quite happy to get things going, but as you see here, several  obstacles about building permits etc. challenged the team.

1st Finnish Biochar Workshop and founding of the Finnish Biochar Association

The 1st Finnish Biochar Workshop was successfully held yesterday, 18 March, in a beautiful ecovillage in Siuntio and we also founded the Finnish Biochar Association. The AgriChar research group was well represented in both activities. 

Participants of the 1st Finnish Biochar Workshop.

Suomen Biohiiliseura or The Finnish Biochar Association will soon be registered, but until the end of March everyone who couldn't attend the workshop can still join as founding members. The website for the SBS or FBA is already under construction, check it out: http://www.suomenbiohiili.info

In the workshop (first in the series of the FBA activities), we tested three different conical kilns designed by Innovaatiopalvelu Koivukunnas. The most original one of these was the one where a barrel was tightly united beneath the kiln so the ready biochar fell into the barrel. As the barrel did not get too hot we even tried it on the lake ice! This might be the first time of modern biochar history to produce biochar on a waterbody- that could be the way for in situ pyrolysing reed from the lakes!

Pyrolysis on the lake ice.

1st Finnish Biochar Workshop and discussions on starting a Finnish/Nordic Biochar Society

Dear biochar friends,

After the 3rd Finnish Biochar Seminar three months ago, several follow-up discussions have been held and it seems that the time is right for starting a Finnish Biochar Society. As people from BSAG expressed their interest also in pyrolysis as possible tool for recycling nutrients from waterbodies, we decided to hold an informal get-together, the 1st Finnish Biochar Workshop, in a beautiful ecovillage near Helsinki, on Saturday, 18 March 2017, starting 11 AM.

The goal is to try there hands-on pyrolyzing reed and forestry residues with small-scale conical kilns and have a nice chat over a cup of tea about setting up a Biochar Society, be it Finnish or Nordic.

To plan the practicalities of the event, please fill in the registration form by 15 March the latest.

Please circulate the invitation wide and far! Everyone is welcome!

Kind regards,
Priit
On behalf of the organizing team

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!

3rd Finnish Biochar Seminar

The 3rd Finnish Biochar Seminar was successfully held in Viikki, Helsinki, on 25 November 2016!

Many thanks for all the participants and to City of Helsinki for the support!

See the proceedings here:
3rd Finnish Biochar Seminar