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Biochar erosion in Denmark

Research Project
 | 
01.01.2013
 - 31.12.2014

Biochar is often considered to be a 'soft' geo-engineering option, with the potential to encourage soils to sequester more carbon (C) from the atmospheric C pool, and so increase both medium- and long-term soil C stocks. Similar to soil organic carbon (SOC), biochar has a lower bulk density than typical agricultural soils. Therefore, the question about its preferential mobilization and redistribution in the landscape has been raised in recent years. This is especially relevant on soils, which are regularly cultivated and are vulnerable to soil erosion themselves. However, so far few studies about the erodibility and fate of biochar in the landscape exist and the answer to this question is still unknown. Since the efficacy of biochar for sequestering carbon and improving soil quality depends on its amount and residential time in the upper soil matrix, it is important to further our knowledge about mobilization and transport behaviour of biochar. Moreover, such knowledge could have profound economic implications for farmers committed to its use, as a high net annual loss of biochar by erosion could exceed any net annual economic gain. The overall objective of this study is, therefore, to investigate the erodibility of biochar, when erosion events occur directly or soon after its application. The estimation of the financial value of the eroded biochar and its cost-effectiveness were scaled up from plot to field scale.

Publications

Fister, W. et al. (2013) ‘Erodibility of biochar from a sandy soil in Denmark’. Available at: http://2sc.unccd.int/fileadmin/unccd/upload/documents/Extended_Abstracts.pdf.

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Members (3)

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Wolfgang Fister

Principal Investigator
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Nikolaus J. Kuhn

Principal Investigator
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Philip Greenwood

Co-Investigator