ABSTRACT
Increasing the forest's productivity is a global concern and there is a need to develop innovative technologies. The use of biochar (BC) in the restoration of degraded sites is mounting. Therefore, to assess the effects of rice straw biochar (BR) on soil physicochemical properties and physiology of Fokienia hodginsii, a one-year greenhouse pot experiment was conducted. The soil was mixed with BR at four different levels; 0, 5, 20, and 80 g kg−1of soil as B0, BR5, BR20, and BR80, respectively. The light-response curves of photosynthesis were constructed by using the modified model of rectangular hyperbola including photosynthetic pigments and biochemical attributes quarterly. BR treated seedlings responded with a significant increase in the photosynthetic rate at first, second, and fourth season, respectively. Increasing the proportion of BR in the soil significantly influenced the soil pH and P availability. At the final harvest, improved soil and physiology promoted the seedling biomass (36%) under BR80 compared to B0. Therefore, these findings suggest that BR can be used to combat soil acidification and P availability in P deficit soil. Its amendment into the soil can be useful to alleviate the physiological performance of the conifer seedlings, but its effects may vary with soil type and BC feed-stock.
Acknowledgments
The author thanks anonymous reviewers who provided helpful suggestions and critical comments on this manuscript.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
ORCID
Muhammad Waqqas Khan Tarin http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7636-3893
Lili Fan http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9673-0881
Lu Shen http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3777-2149
Jinli Lai http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8086-1166
Jingwen Li http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6617-7288
Zhiwen Deng http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8597-4247
Lingyan Chen http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2776-8303
Tianyou He http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7300-2539
Jundong Rong http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8733-8500
Yushan Zheng http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9545-0984
Correction Statement
This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.