Spatial heterogeneity of soil biochar content affects soil quality and wheat growth and yield

Biochar (BC) is a carbonaceous material obtained by pyrolysis of organic waste materials and has been proposed as a soil management strategy to mitigate global warming and to improve crop productivity. Once BC has been applied to the soil, its imperfect and incomplete mixing with soil during the first few years and the standard agronomic practices (i.e. tillage, sowing) may generate spatial heterogeneity of the BC content in the soil, which may have implications for soil properties and their effects on plant growth. We investigated how, after two agronomic seasons, the spatial heterogeneity of olive-tree prunings BC applied to a vertisol affected soil characteristics and wheat growth and yield. During the second agronomic season and just before wheat germination, we determined the BC content in the soil by an in-situ visual categorization based on the soil darkening, which was strongly correlated to the BC content of the soil and the soil brightness. We found a high spatial heterogeneity in the BC plots, which affected soil characteristics and wheat growth and yield. Patches with high BC content showed reduced soil compaction and increased soil moisture, pH, electrical conductivity, and nutrient availability (P, Ca, K, Mn, Fe, and Zn); consequently, wheat had greater tillering and higher relative growth rate and grain yield. However, if the spatial heterogeneity of the soil BC content had not been taken into account in the data analysis, most of the effects of BC on wheat growth would not have been detected. Our study reveals the importance of taking into account the spatial heterogeneity of the BC content.