Biochar reduces leaching of soil nutrients, saving on inputs, while increasing soil moisture, reducing the need for watering.
He said that without new chemical approaches, farmers would have to plow more, increasing soil erosion.
Plants have played a key role in the evolution of soils by providing organic matter, but also by increasing soil stability, through their root systems.
The flow of the Murray River has been substantially reduced by irrigation, and increasing soil salinity has placed vast areas of farmland at risk.
Many island nations have recently seen their populations displaced by severe flooding and erosion, their food supply disrupted by increasing soil salinity and ocean acidification, and, in several cases, large portions of their G.D.P. wiped out by extreme weather events.
By promoting crop flexibility, it could help feed billions of added mouths despite shrinking land and water, rising oil and fertilizer costs, increasing soil exhaustion, growing resistance of insects to pesticides and looming climate change.
Increasing soil OM also decreased CH4 uptake by 30%.
The KE and TS decreased with increasing soil water potentials.
Soil salt content increased with increasing soil depth.
SOC storage decreased with increasing soil sampling depth.
The soil CO2 concentrations increased with increasing soil depth, whereas CO2 production decreased with increasing soil depth.
