Biochar as a global change adaptation: predicting biochar impacts on crop productivity and soil quality for a tropical soil with the Environmental Policy Integrated Climate (EPIC) model

Taras Lychuk (), Roberto Izaurralde (), Robert Hill (), William McGill () and Jimmy Williams ()

Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, 2015, vol. 20, issue 8, 1437-1458

Abstract: The Environmental Policy Integrated Climate (EPIC) model with newly-developed biochar algorithms was used to determine the impacts of biochar amendments on corn (Zea mays L.) yields, soil cation exchange capacity (CEC), pH, bulk density (D b ) and soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics. The objectives were (1) to determine biochar impacts on crop yields and soil properties of a tropical soil and (2) to evaluate biochar’s potential as a climate change adaptation tool. EPIC was validated using results of a 4−yr experiment performed on an Amazonian Oxisol amended with biochar at rates of 0, 8, and 20 Mg ha −1 . Simulated yields of corn on biochar amended soil were significantly greater than control yields (p > 0.05). Simulated soil pH increased from original 3.9 to 4.19, CEC increased from 9.76 to 11.5 cmol c kg −1 , and SOC also increased. After validation, EPIC was used to simulate the impacts of the same biochar rates applied at 4 year intervals on corn yields and soil properties over the next 20 years. Soil CEC increased from 11.1 cmol c kg −1 to 20.2 cmol c kg −1 for the highest biochar application rate. Soil pH increased from 3.9 to 5.64. SOC increased up to 2.59 % for the highest biochar application rate with decreased topsoil D b from 1.11 Mg m −3 to 0.97 Mg m −3 . Long-term corn yields were slightly decreased. Although the results are biochar-, dose-, and soil-specific, biochar additions to tropical soils hold promise as a climate change adaptation tool resulting in increased soil carbon sequestration and improved soil properties. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015

Keywords: Biochar; Bulk density; Cation exchange capacity; Crop productivity; Environmental Policy Integrated Climate Model (EPIC); Modeling; pH; Soil carbon dynamics; Soil quality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11027-014-9554-7 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

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:spr:masfgc:v:20:y:2015:i:8:p:1437-1458

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11027

DOI: 10.1007/s11027-014-9554-7

Access Statistics for this article

Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change is currently edited by Robert Dixon

More articles in Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().