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Effects of biochar application on the loss characteristics of Cd from acidic soil under simulated rainfall conditions

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Abstract

Biochar is widely used for immobilizing heavy metals in soil as a kind of high-effective passivator. This research conducted incubation and simulated rainfall experiments to study the effects of biochar application on the loss characteristics of runoff and sediment, as well as the transportation of the Cd during the water erosion process. Two rainfall intensities (60 and 120 mm h−1) and five biochar application rates (0%, 1%, 3%, 5%, and 7%) were considered in the experiment. The result showed that slaking had a greater effect than mechanical stirring in aggregate breakdown of the soil, and the addition of biochar generally increased the sensitivity of the soil to wet stirring, while had no obvious influence on the resistance to slaking. The H2O and CaCl2 extractable Cd in soil significantly decreased with the increase of biochar application rate. The runoff yields decreased with the increase of biochar application rate at both the two rainfall intensities, while the eroded sediment generally decreased at the 120 mm h−1 rainfall intensity. The addition of biochar tended to increase the loss of the middle-sized (1–0.05 mm) aggregates at the 60 mm h−1 rainfall intensity, whereas reduced their loss at the 120 mm h−1 rainfall intensity. Biochar application could significantly reduce the concentration of Cd in the runoff and decreased the total loss amount of Cd (sediment+runoff) in most of the cases. Excessively high level (7%) of biochar application may aggravate soil erosion and result in more Cd loss.

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Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 42177343, No. 41701320), the GDAS’ Project of Science and Technology Development (2019GDASYL-0104015, 2019GDASYL-0301002, 2019GDASYL-0401003, and 2019GDASYL-0103043), the Guangzhou Science and Technology Plan Project (202002020026), the Meizhou Science and Technology Plan Project (2020B0204001), and the Guangdong Provincial Science and Technology Program (2018B030324001).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Guangdong Key Laboratory of Integrated Agro-environmental Pollution Control and Management, Institute of Eco-environment and Soil Sciences, Guangdong Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510650, People’s Republic of China

    Zaijian Yuan, Dingqiang Li, Bin Huang, Mingguo Zheng, Yishan Liao & Zhenyue Xie

  2. National-Regional Joint Engineering Research Center for Soil Pollution Control and Remediation in South China, Guangzhou, 510650, People’s Republic of China

    Zaijian Yuan, Dingqiang Li, Bin Huang, Mingguo Zheng, Yishan Liao & Zhenyue Xie

  3. School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, People’s Republic of China

    Yueyan Song

  4. International Academy of Soil and Water Conservation, Meizhou, 514000, People’s Republic of China

    Zaijian Yuan, Dingqiang Li, Bin Huang, Mingguo Zheng, Yishan Liao & Zhenyue Xie

  5. Jiangxi Provincial Meteorological Observatory, Nanchang, 330096, People’s Republic of China

    Yunhui Chen

  6. South China Normal University, School of Environment, Guangzhou, 510631, People’s Republic of China

    Xiaojun Ge

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  1. Zaijian Yuan
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  2. Yueyan Song
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  3. Dingqiang Li
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  4. Bin Huang
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  7. Mingguo Zheng
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Contributions

Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Zaijian Yuan, Yueyan Song, Bin Huang, Yunhui Chen, and Xiaojun Ge. The first draft was written by Zaijian Yuan and Yueyan Song. The final draft was analyzed and reviewed by Dingqiang Li, Bin Huang, Mingguo Zheng, Yishan Liao and Zhenyue Xie. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Bin Huang.

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Yuan, Z., Song, Y., Li, D. et al. Effects of biochar application on the loss characteristics of Cd from acidic soil under simulated rainfall conditions. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 83969–83980 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-21623-x

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