Natural organic biomass burning creates black carbon which forms a considerable proportion of the soil’s organic carbon. Due to black carbon’s aromatic structure it is recalcitrant and has the potential for long-term carbon sequestration in soil. Soils within the Amazon-basin contain numerous sites where the ‘dark earth of the Indians’ (Terra preta de Indio, or Amazonian Dark Earths (ADE)) exist and are composed of variable quantities of highly stable organic black carbon waste (‘biochar’). The apparent high agronomic fertility of these sites, relative to tropical soils in general, has attracted interest. Biochars can be produced by ‘baking’ organic matter under low oxygen (‘pyrolysis’). The quantities of key mineral elements within these biochars can be directly related to the levels of these components in the feedstock prior to burning. Their incorporation in soils influences soil structure, texture, porosity, particle size distribution and density. The molecular structure of biochars shows a high degree of chemical and microbial stability. A key physical feature of most biochars is their highly porous structure and large surface area. This structure can provide refugia for beneficial soil micro-organisms such as mycorrhizae and bacteria, and influences the binding of important nutritive cations and anions. This binding can enhance the availability of macro-nutrients such as N and P. Other biochar soil changes include alkalisation of soil pH and increases in electrical conductivity (EC) and cation exchange capacity (CEC). Ammonium leaching has been shown to be reduced, along with N2O soil emissions. There may also be reductions in soil mechanical impedance. Terra preta soils contain a higher number of ‘operational taxonomic units’ and have highly distinctive microbial communities relative to neighbouring soils. The potential importance of biochar soil incorporation on mycorrhizal fungi has also been noted with biochar providing a physical niche devoid of fungal grazers. Improvements in soil field capacity have been recorded upon biochar additions. Evidence shows that bioavailability and plant uptake of key nutrients increases in response to biochar application, particularly when in the presence of added nutrients. Depending on the quantity of biochar added to soil significant improvements in plant productivity have been achieved, but these reports derive predominantly from studies in the tropics. As yet there is limited critical analysis of possible agricultural impacts of biochar application in temperate regions, nor on the likelihood of utilising such soils as long-term sites for carbon sequestration. This review aims to determine the extent to which inferences of experience mostly from tropical regions could be extrapolated to temperate soils and to suggest areas requiring study.

Potential mechanisms for achieving agricultural benefits from biochar application to temperate soils: a review

Biochar is not a structured homogeneous material; rather it possesses a range of chemical structures and a heterogeneous elemental composition. This variability is based on the conditions of pyrolysis and the biomass parent material, with biochar spanning the range of various forms of black carbon. Thereby, this variability induces a broad spectrum in the observed rates of reactivity and, correspondingly, the overall chemical and microbial stability. From evaluating the current biochar and black carbon degradation studies, there is the suggestion of an overall relationship in biochar stability as a function of the molar ratio of oxygen to carbon (O:C) in the resulting black carbon. In general, a molar ratio of O:C lower than 0.2 appears to provide, at minimum, a 1000-year biochar half-life. The O:C ratio is a function of production temperature, but also accounts for other impacts (e.g., parent material and post-production conditioning/oxidation) that are not captured solely with production temperature. Th...

Review of the stability of biochar in soils: predictability of O:C molar ratios

Biochars are increasingly used as soil amendment and for C sequestration in soils. The influence of feedstock differences and pyrolysis temperature on biochar characteristics has been widely studied. However, there is a lack of knowledge about the formation of potentially toxic compounds that remain in the biochars after pyrolysis. We investigated biochars from three feedstocks (wheat straw, poplar wood, and spruce wood) that were slowly pyrolyzed at 400, 460, and 525°C for 5 h (straw) and 10 h (woodchips), respectively. We characterized the biochars' pH, electrical conductivity, elemental composition (by dry combustion and X-ray fluorescence), surface area (by N adsorption), water-extractable major elements, and cation exchange capacity (CEC). We further conducted differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and X-ray diffractometry to obtain information on the biochars' molecular characteristics and mineralogical composition. We investigated trace metal content, total polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) content, and PAH composition in the biochars. The highest salt (4.92 mS cm) and ash (12.7%) contents were found in straw-derived biochars. The H/C ratios of biochars with highest treatment temperature (HTT) 525°C were 0.46 to 0.40. Surface areas were low but increased (1.8-56 m g) with increasing HTT, whereas CEC decreased (162-52 mmol kg) with increasing HTT. The results of DSC and FTIR suggested a loss of labile, aliphatic compounds during pyrolysis and the formation of more recalcitrant, aromatic constituents. X-ray diffractometry patterns indicated a mineralogical restructuring of biochars with increasing HTT. Water-extractable major and trace elements varied considerably with feedstock composition, with trace elements also affected by HTT. Total PAH contents (sum of EPA 16 PAHs) were highly variable with values up to 33.7 mg kg; irrespective of feedstock type, the composition of PAHs showed increasing dominance of naphthalene with increasing HTT. The results demonstrate that biochars are highly heterogeneous materials that, depending on feedstock and HTT, may be suitable for soil application by contributing to the nutrient status and adding recalcitrant C to the soil but also potentially pose ecotoxicological challenges.

Characterization of slow pyrolysis biochars: effects of feedstocks and pyrolysis temperature on biochar properties.

Soils and sediments worldwide contain appreciable amounts of thermally altered organic matter (chars). Chars contain electroactive quinoid functional groups and polycondensed aromatic sheets that were recently shown to be of biogeochemical and envirotechnical relevance. However, so far no systematic investigation of the redox properties of chars formed under different pyrolysis conditions has been performed. Here, using mediated electrochemical analysis, we show that chars made from different feedstock and over a range of pyrolysis conditions are redox-active and reversibly accept and donate up to 2 mmol electrons per gram of char. The analysis of two thermosequences revealed that chars produced at intermediate to high heat treatment temperatures (HTTs) (400–700 °C) show the highest capacities to accept and donate electrons. Combined electrochemical, elemental, and spectroscopic analyses of the thermosequence chars provide evidence that the pool of redox-active moieties is dominated by electron-donating, ...

/pdf/redox-properties-of-plant-biomass-derived-black-carbon-1lpd8690wq.pdf

Redox Properties of Plant Biomass-Derived Black Carbon (Biochar)

Wildland fire ash: Production, composition and eco-hydro-geomorphic effects

Fire profoundly modifies the terrestrial C cycle of about 40% of the Earth’s land surface. The immediate effect of fire is that of a net loss of C as CO2 gas and soot particles to the atmosphere. Nevertheless, a proportion of the ecosystem biomass is converted into charcoal, which contains highly recalcitrant molecular structures that contribute to long-term C storage. The present study aimed to assess simultaneously losses to the atmosphere and charcoal production rates of C and N compounds as a result of prescription fire in a Florida scrub-oak ecosystem. Pre-fire and post-fire charred and unburned organic matter stocks were determined for vegetation leaves and stems, litter and soil in 20 sub-plots installed in a 30-ha area that was subjected to prescribed fire. Concentrations of C and N were determined, and fluxes among pools and to the atmosphere were derived from these measurements. Soil C and N stocks were unchanged by the fire. Post-fire standing dead biomass contained 30% and 12% of pre-fire vegetation C and N stocks, respectively. In litter, post-fire stocks contained 64% and 83% of pre-fire C and N stocks, respectively. Most of the difference in relative losses between vegetation and litter could be attributed to substantial litter fall of charred and unburned leaves during the fire event. Indeed, an estimated 21% of pre-fire vegetation leaf C was found in the post-fire litter, while the remaining 79% was lost to the atmosphere. About 3/4 of the fire-induced leaf litter fall was in the form of unburned tissue and the remainder was charcoal, which amounted to 5% of pre-fire leaf C stocks. Charcoal production ranged between 4% and 6% of the fire-affected biomass, i.e. the sum of charcoal production and atmospheric losses. This value is below the range of literature values for the transformation of plant tissue into stable soil organic matter through humification processes, which suggests that fire generates a smaller quantity of stable organic C than humification processes over decades and potentially centuries.

Fire impact on C and N losses and charcoal production in a scrub oak ecosystem

Thermal alteration of organic matter during a shrubland fire: A field study

Comunicacion oral BG1.05-1WE4O-001, presentada a la sesion BG1.05 Analysis and Characterization of Black Carbon
in the Environment (co-listed in AS, HS, OS & SSS).-- Congreso celebrado del 15 -20 de abril, 2007, en Viena, Austria.

/pdf/black-carbon-as-isolated-by-chemical-oxidation-3tksd0t4cy.pdf

Black carbon as isolated by chemical oxidation: characterization and contribution in litter and soil

Isolation of soil lignins by combination of ball-milling and cellulolysis: Evaluation of purity and isolation efficiency with pyrolysis/GC/MS

Handle everyday research tasks with reliable, citation-backed results

Your personal Research Agent to handle research tasks with citation-backed results

Popular Tasks used by Researchers

How can I help with your research?

Meet SciSpace

Get more enhanced response by uploading the PDFs you want me to reference.

No relevant PDFs in your library

SciSpace is the AI research assistant for academics. Run systematic literature reviews on 280M+ papers, and write papers with cited sources. Trusted by 1M+ students, PhDs & researchers.

SciSpace | AI for Research

Analyze PDFs

Code & Manuscripts

Funding & Grants

Literature & Patents

Medical & Clinical Data

Systematic Review

Visualize & Present

Web & Data

Build a Google Scholar-like website for your research.

Build a website

Create charts and images for your research

Create a Chart

Write a paper for submission to a journal

Draft a manuscript

Patent Search

Design eye-catching scientific posters in minutes.

Scientific Poster Generation

Systematic Literature Review

One task is running at the moment. Your messages will be shown right after.

Drag and drop or click here to browse

Loved by <highlight>1 million+</highlight> researchers

Extract a list of specific topics and their sources from unstructured text

Topics

Compare and analyze relevant papers that matches with your search

Papers

Get insights from PDFs and bookmarked papers from your library

My library

Recent searches

Try searching for:

Catch AI-generated content in scholarly and non-scholarly content

{ai} Detector

Ai Writer

Get PDF Summaries, highlighted text explanations 

Chat with PDF

Effortlessly create in-text citations and bibliographies in APA and 2,500 other formats

Citation generator

Get explanations, summaries, and answers on academic papers

Ease up your research workflow with {scispace}'s cohort of exciting AI tools

Elevate your academic writing skills and convey your ideas the way you want

Paraphraser

Explore our range of reading and writing tools

Your file is being prepared and should be ready in a few minutes. If it's a large file, it might take a bit longer. You can close this window, and we'll email you the file when it's done.

You have reached a maximum limit of <strong>{limit}</strong> columns in the table. Remove at least <strong>1</strong> column to add or create another one.

Nicolas Péchot

Author Tools

Chat about Author

Papers

Fire impact on C and N losses and charcoal production in a scrub oak ecosystem

Thermal alteration of organic matter during a shrubland fire: A field study

Black carbon as isolated by chemical oxidation: characterization and contribution in litter and soil

Isolation of soil lignins by combination of ball-milling and cellulolysis: Evaluation of purity and isolation efficiency with pyrolysis/GC/MS