Effects of Two Biochar Types on Mitigating Drought and Salt Stress in Tomato Seedlings

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

Documents

  • Fulltext

    Final published version, 986 KB, PDF document

Biochar’s underlying biochemical and physiological mechanisms in reducing irrigation and salinity stress are elusive. This paper investigates the effects of two types of biochar (wood biochar and poultry biochar) on the growth and physiology of tomato seedlings exposed to the combined effects of drought and salinity stress. Two types of biochar, wood biochar (WB) and poultry biochar (PB), were added to the soil separately, with three salinity gradients of 0, 100, and 200 mmol/L and two water supply conditions of full irrigation (FI) and deficit irrigation (DI). Results showed that biochar addition effectively improved the root water potential and osmotic potential of tomato plant under drought and salinity stress. Biochar application also mitigated leaf relative water content by 9.86% and 24.37% under drought and salinity stress, respectively. Furthermore, biochar application decreased abscisic acid concentrations in xylem sap under drought and salinity stress. Biochar altered the soil structure and increased field water holding capacity, indirectly increasing the soil water supply. While water use efficiency did not increase significantly after biochar application, a synergistic increase in seedling growth and water consumption occurred. In conclusion, biochar addition shows promise for promoting seedling growth to help mitigate the adverse impacts of drought and salinity stress on plant growth and physiology.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1039
JournalAgronomy
Volume13
Issue number4
Number of pages14
ISSN2073-4395
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 by the authors.

    Research areas

  • ABA, biochar, photosynthesis, water relationship, water use efficiency (WUE)

ID: 346535975