The effect of pruned tea leave biochar and cattle manure for soil acidification

Abstract Soil acidification in tea gardens has become an increasingly serious problem. In this study, we conducted an outdoor pot experiment to investigate the effects of pruned tea leaf biochar and cattle manure on soil acidification. We observed that amendments effectively increased soil pHBC, which increased 12.43%, 3.24%, 8.38%, 5.68% and 11.35% for BC, M, BCM1, BCM2 and BCM3. Exchangeable K + , Na + , Ca 2+ and Mg 2+ concentrations increased after application of the amendments. Furthermore, the total exchangeable acidity concentration (EA) and the exchangeable Al 3+ and H + concentration (Al 3+ and H + ) decreased after application of amendments. In addition, pHBC showed a strong positive correlation with K + , Na + , Ca 2+ , Mg 3+ and cation exchange capacity and strong negative correlations with EA and Al 3+ . Moreover, EA and K + were the primary factors influencing pHBC. The relationships among pHBC, EA and K + can be expressed as a power function.