Biochar and Chlorella increase rice yield by improving saline-alkali soil physicochemical properties and regulating...

The combined effects of biochar and Chlorella under aquaculture wastewater irrigation in improving saline-alkali soil physicochemical properties, microbial communities, and rice yield, is not yet clear. This study utilized soil physicochemical indicators and gene sequencing to examine the effect of salinity stress, biochar and Chlorella under aquaculture wastewater irrigation on soil properties, bacterial community compositions, and rice production. Treatments included three factors in a randomized complete block design with three replications: (i) Biochar - 40 tons ha ^-1 (B_W) versus no-biochar (B_N); (ii) Salinity - 3‰ salinity (S_H) versus 1‰ salinity (S_L); and (iii) Chlorella - with 10⁷ cells mL ^-1 Chlorella (C_W) versus no-Chlorella (C_N). The results revealed that increased salinity adversely affected the soil nutrients (TOC, NO₃⁻-N, NH₄⁺-N, Olsen-P), and enzyme activity (urease, sucrase, catalase), resulting in a 9.67% reduction in rice yield compared to S_L treatment. However, the close correlation between alterations in soil bacterial communities, functions, and soil physicochemical properties, as well as rice yield, indicated that biochar and Chlorella promoted rice yield by enhancing the physicochemical properties of saline-alkali soil and bacterial community when irrigated with aquaculture wastewater: (1) addition of biochar increased the146.05% rice yield by increasing TOC content, the complexity of bacterial co-occurrence patterns, nitrogen fixation potential, and nitrification potential, (2) addition of Chlorella increased TOC, NO₃⁻-N, NH₄⁺-N, enhanced urease, sucrase, catalase activity, and nitrification potential to increased rice yield by 60.29%, and (3) compared with the treatment T3 (S_HB_NC_N), the treatments with biochar (B_W) and Chlorella (C_W) increased the yield by 561.30% and 445.03% under 1‰ and 3‰ salinity, respectively. These findings provide novel perspectives on the capacity of biochar and Chlorella to improve saline-alkali soil properties and increase rice yield irrigated with aquaculture wastewater.