Benefits of Corn-Cob Biochar to the Microbial and Enzymatic Activity of Soybean Plants Grown in Soils Contaminated with Heavy Metals

Samir A. Haddad and Joanna Lemanowicz
Additional contact information
Samir A. Haddad: Agricultural Microbiology Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Minia University, El-Minia 61517, Egypt
Joanna Lemanowicz: Department of Biogeochemistry and Soil Science, Faculty of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Bydgoszcz University of Science and Technology, Bernardyńska 6 St., 85-029 Bydgoszcz, Poland

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 18, 1-14

Abstract: Synchronous effects of biochar on heavy metals stress, microbial activity and nodulation process in the soil are rarely addressed. This work studied the effects, under greenhouse conditions, of selected heavy metals Cd 2+ , Pb 2+ and Ni 2+ on soybean plants grown in two different soils amended with biochar, and studied their effect on the microbial and enzymatic activity. As a result of the interference between heavy metals and biochar, biochar overcame heavy metal problems and maintained a microbial population of major groups (bacteria–fungi). There was an increase in the degree of resistance ( RS ) of the major microbial groups to heavy metals when biochar was added to the soil under study. Numbers of bacterial nodules significantly increased, particularly by using the higher rate of biochar compared to the control, either by adding biochar alone or by mixing it with the selected heavy metals. The arginase activity was increased by 25.5% and 37.1% in clay and sandy soil, respectively, compared to the control. For urease (UR), the activity was increased by 105% and 83.8% in clay and sandy soil, respectively, compared to the control. As a result, considerations of using biochar as a soil amendment should be first priority.

Keywords: corncob biochar; heavy metals; enzymatic activity; nodules; soil health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/18/5763/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/18/5763/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:18:p:5763-:d:634474

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().