Pulse Brain · Growing Health Evidence Index
Peer-reviewed

The potential of biochar as a microbial carrier for agricultural and environmental applications

Shiv Bolan, Deyi Hou, Liuwei Wang, Lauren Hale, Dilfuza Egamberdieva, Priit Tammeorg, Rui Li, Bing Wang, Jiaping Xu, Ting Wang, Hongwen Sun, Lokesh P. Padhye, Hailong Wang, Kadambot H. M. Siddique, Jörg Rinklebe, M.B. Kirkham, Nanthi Bolan

The Science of The Total Environment · 2023

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Summary

Biochar can be an effective carrier for microbial inoculants because of its favourable properties promoting microbial life. In this review, we assess the effectiveness of biochar as a microbial carrier for agricultural and environmental applications. Biochar is enriched with organic carbon, contains nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium as nutrients, and has a high porosity and moisture-holding capacity. The large number of active hydroxyl, carboxyl, sulfonic acid group, amino, imino, and acylamino hydroxyl and carboxyl functional groups are effective for microbial cell adhesion and proliferation. The use of biochar as a carrier of microbial inoculum has been shown to enhance the persistence, survival and colonization of inoculated microbes in soil and plant roots, which play a crucial role

Subject
Soil carbon & organic matter
Source type
Peer-reviewed study
System type
Other
DOI
10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.163968
Catalogue ID
SNmp4zkwed-b9uam1
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