Revitalizing coastal saline-alkali soil with biochar application for improved crop growth

The wheat straw biochar has well pronounced effects on the coastal saline-alkali soil remediation/health. The soil water content in saline-alkali soil increased by 12.4–16.6% (2014), 18.1–63.4% (2015), 23.9–42.6% (2016) with 0, 20, 40, and 60 t ha−1 application of wheat straw biochar. The different chemical properties like pH, CEC (cation exchange capacity) and SOM (soil organic matter) ranged between 0.2 and 3.1, 6.7–82.0% and 12.6–139.6%, respectively with biochar application during three years of field experiment. The TSS (total soluble salt) of different biochar treatments in the soil decreased by 15.9–23.7% (2014), 28.6–54.6% (2015), 11.7–42.2% (2016) compared with control. The exchangeable/soluble cations like Calcium (Ca), Magnesium (Mg), chlorine (Cl) and Sodium (Na) concentration showed the similar trend as that of TSS. The soil soluble potassium (K) concentration significantly increased by 82.5–233.1% (2014), 65.3–228.2% (2015), 19.2–233.8% (2016) compared with control, which mainly originated from biochar. The wheat straw biochar application improves the coastal saline-alkali soil health and environment, which promoted the crop growth. The biochar amendment improved the soil properties with decrease in the salt concentration that showed biochar potential to improve/remediate the saline alkali soil.