Long Term Experiment Platform

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LONG TERM EXPERIMENT PLATFORM FOR THE STUDY OF AGRONOMICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS OF THE BIOCHAR (LTEP-BIOCHAR)

The platform inventories and compares experiments on field application of biochar for agronomic purposes and its environmental effects (e.g. carbon sequestration) over a significative timeframe. Remediation of polluted soils is not in scope. The field experiments shall take place under dynamically, meteorologically and biologically complex conditions.

 We are mapping activities across Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.

ONGOING experiments are highlighted in the experiment file list at the foot of this web page.

The LTEP project is an ICHAR initiative implemented and managed by the EMRG group of the University of Bologna.

Purpose

The Long Term Experiment Platform for the study of agronomical and environmental effects of the biochar (LTEP-BIOCHAR) aims to display the experiments realised so far. The purposes are:

-      taking a census of the current experiments

-      showing objectives, methods, conditions of the experiment

-      displaying authors and promoters of the initiative 

The presentation of the results is not in the scope of the platform; however, references and contact details are provided in the experiment files.

As a general goal, the platform will show the aim of the researches, the main studied parameters, the diversity of the experiments.  Therefore, by comparison, a further analysis may uncover methodological gaps and suggest testing new hypothesis without unnecessary duplications.  In this sense, the platform can support the design of future experiments.

Definitions

An experiment qualifies as a Long Term Experiment (LTE) if its duration has been OR will be at least three years, OR if its duration has been at least one year AND the experimental field is still available for further analysis and experiments. In all cases, the biochar has to be still present in the soil. This has to be a field experiment so that the biochar interacts with a complex combination of soil, plants, weather, soil fauna etc. All studied effects such as plant production, liming effect, soil water retention/availability, soil compaction, carbon negativity, effects on N cycle, mycorrhizal/earthworms abundance, etc., are of interest.

However, the measurements must be conducted with a scientific method and compared with initial measurements: replicability and reproducibility must be ensured. Field conditions and operations (including mulching, additional fertilisers/amendments, ploughing, etc..) must be recorded throughout the duration of the experiment. Field conditions, changes and unknown conditions or events should be accurately reported.

The information is acquired and published on the basis of the declarations made by the person in charge of the experiment and is distributed under the Creative Common License: Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0).

Selected experiments

In the "Long Term Experiments" section below you can find the presentations of each experiment selected to be part of the platform. By clicking on the name of the experiment, a PDF file will be automatically downloaded. Each presentation contains a description of the site and the experiment, the studied/monitored parameters and some photos.

Submissions

To submit your experiment, please download and fill in the Power Point file template in the ''Documents'' section and follow instructions therein. Please modify and complete the template in its entirety, adding all the details of interest and attaching some photos of the site, the materials used, specifying target crops, plants , etc.
In case of doubts, please refer to the experiment files already published.

For further questions and to submit your application, please refer to the email address you can find in the "Contact" section.

ICHAR and Interdepartmental Centre for Environmental Sciences Research (CIRSA),  University of Bologna

invitation to submit to the Special Issue of Agriculture

This Special Issue is open to contributions (research papers and a reduced number of reviews) exploring the effect of biochar and its blend with other biowaste products (compost, digestate, sludge) on soil fertility and crop yield, posing particular attention on the interaction among soil, plant and microorganisms occurring in the rhizosphere.

preview of the paper

The methodological framework and structure of LTEP-BIOCHAR has been published in Agriculture MDPI as part of the Special Issue Long Term Agronomical, Physiological and Environmental Implications of Biochar Use in Agricultural Soils.

You can access and download the paper here.