Though biochar has been promoted as the soil C sequestration agent, but its stability is variable. I am interested to know anything about its stability in Indian subcontinent conditions as it has variable environmental conditions.
Will be happy to learn more about - however, are you working on soil biota components and their temporal and spatial dynamics ? could be one or the reasons for stability and variation.
Thank you Prof. Steinberger for your kind insight. Though my work is not directly associated with soil biota, but I have worked on biochar affluence on soil physico-chemcial properties. Microbial behaviour for C mineralization could be explored in Indian conditions.
During early stages of cultivation, C mineralization effect of biochar increased with increased the application rates of LOM.
Biochar is alkaline, and microbial ecology and activity are related to soil pH, facts that are often ignored/not controlled for in evaluating the effects of biochar on various processes, including soil C mineralisation, The possible involvement of trace constituents (positive and negative) is too often not considered. These are these reasons that most such studies are not accepted by the top tier journals.
Thank you Dr. Rasool and Prof. Milham for your valuable comments. I agreed with your comments that most of the agronomic studies related with biochar application ignored the preparatory phase i.e., pyrolysis conditions. The pH of biochar is chiefly governed by Pyrolysis temperature as low temperature biochar have acidic pH and high temperature biochar have alkaline pH. Trace metals and labile organic matter contents of biochar might have stimulatory effect over C mineralization which needs to be evaluated.
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