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201093

Impact of Biochar and Hydrogel Amendments on Hydrophysical Properties of Sandy Soil and Cowpea Yield (VignaUnguiculata L.) Under Different Water Regimes

Article

Last updated: 01 Jan 2025

Subjects

-

Tags

Environmental chemistry

Abstract

South Mediterranean countries including Egypt and Tunisia are characterized by vast lands withuncultivated sandy soils. These soils have poor hydrophysical-bio-chemical properties that are being reclaimeddue to population growth and the need to increase food supply. Furthermore, there is high production of crop and orchard residues from agricultural activities thatlead to harmful effects to theenvironment. Therefore, converting these residues to biochar and theiruse as amendments with sandy soils could improve water retention. This research investigated the effect of three soil amendments: - biochar (50 g/plant and 100 g/plant), hydrogel (2.7 g/plant) and their mixtures (hydro-char) (50 g biochar and 2.7 g hydrogel) on some hydrophysical properties. The properties included soil water constants, pore size distribution and void ratios on yield parameters of the cowpea fodder crop under two irrigation levels (100 and 75% on base of ETc) evaluated under field experiment.The results showed that higher water content at field capacity (FC) and available water content (AW) was observed with the use of 50 and 100g/plant biochar followed by hydro-char combinations. Data revealed that higher values of drainable pores (DP) were recorded after 2.7 g hydrogel, and 100 g biochar; storage pores (SP) after 2.7 hydrogel and 100g biochar, and100g biochar; whereas none useful pores were recorded after2.7 hydrogel under 75 and 100% irrigation regimes. Positivecorrelations were recorded between FC drainable poresDP, storage pores SP, total porosity TP, and void ratio with r-values of 0.544*, 0.983**, 0.805**; 0.814**, respectively.Also, thebiological yield exhibited positive correlations with water holding capacity (WHC), FC, AW, SP,TP, andvoid ratio with r-values of 0.797**, 0.835**, 0.864**, 0.879**, 0.628** and 0.631**, respectively. Yield variables increasedhigher in75% than in 100%irrigation regimes. It wasconcluded that the ability of biochar to enhance the hydrophysical properties of sandy soils is highly dependent on thebiochar characteristics and its application rates. Furthermore, biochar applications can increase water retentionin sandy soils.

DOI

10.21608/ejchem.2021.97083.4542

Keywords

Biochar, Hydrogel, Hydrochar, soil water constants, Cowpea, Water stress, sandy soil

Authors

First Name

Adel

Last Name

El-Hassanin

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Cairo Universty

Email

gomma1985@yahoo.com

City

-

Orcid

-

First Name

Magdy

Last Name

Samaka

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Cairo University

Email

magdysamak@yahoo.com

City

-

Orcid

-

First Name

Omar

Last Name

El-Hady

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

National Research center

Email

essam_saleh@hotmail.com

City

-

Orcid

-

First Name

Camilia

Last Name

El-Dewiny

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

National Research Center

Email

camiliaeldewiny@yahoo.com

City

-

Orcid

-

First Name

Fayza

Last Name

Mostafa

MiddleName

El-Sayed

Affiliation

National Research Center

Email

faiza_elsaed@yahoo.com

City

-

Orcid

-

Volume

65

Article Issue

4

Related Issue

29683

Issue Date

2022-04-01

Receive Date

2021-09-20

Publish Date

2022-04-01

Page Start

487

Page End

497

Print ISSN

0449-2285

Online ISSN

2357-0245

Link

https://ejchem.journals.ekb.eg/article_201093.html

Detail API

https://ejchem.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=201093

Order

46

Type

Original Article

Type Code

297

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Egyptian Journal of Chemistry

Publication Link

https://ejchem.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

Impact of Biochar and Hydrogel Amendments on Hydrophysical Properties of Sandy Soil and Cowpea Yield (VignaUnguiculata L.) Under Different Water Regimes

Details

Type

Article

Created At

22 Jan 2023