A substantial amount of greenhouse gas emissions is from agriculture practices. With the increasing popularity of using biochar as a soil amendment, the question arises as to whether the application of biochar will mitigate greenhouse gas emissions in agricultural fields. This ongoing study aims to synthesize recent research data on biochar’s effects on soil greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, particularly CO2, CH4 and N2O. Data were extracted from independent individual studies and then statistically processed for analysis. This synthesis focuses on biochar made from woody and herbaceous feedstocks through fast pyrolysis. Possible impacting factors such as biochar feedstock type, residence time and temperature for biochar pyrolysis, biochar application rate, soil type and soil properties were considered for comparisons. To exclude influences of fertilizer nutrients (e.g., N and P), research that applied fertilizers during the observation periods were not selected. All the emission data collected from different sources were converted into their respective cumulative emissions over 30 days, and the percentage changes in GHG emissions were calculated between the control and experimental values. Our preliminary results indicate that biochar application in most agricultural fields is likely to reduce GHG emissions (particularly N2O emission), but the data from a small group of studies suggest differently. It also has been found that biochar products made from herbaceous feedstock tended to stimulate CO2 and CH4 emission, while those from woody materials exhibited little effects. Understanding biochar’s impact on GHG emissions would greatly contribute to building a more resilient agricultural ecosystem against the changing climate.

Data study of the effect of biochar application on greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural soils

ACS Spring 2022

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