Effect of biochar on CH4 and N2O emission from soils vegetated with paddy

Biochar is believed to have positive impact on soil properties and plant yield. Due to the presence of C, it can also enhance CH₄ emission in paddy soils. On the other hand, ammonium sulphate can decrease CH₄ emission due to negative impacts on methanogenesis. Keeping these points in view, a pot experiment was conducted to determine the effect of biochar along with ammonium sulphate on CH₄ and N₂O emission from paddy soil. Analysis revealed that biochar treated soils released more CH₄ compared to untreated. Ammonium sulphate treated soil emitted the highest N₂O whereas biochar addition decreased its emission significantly. Further, total emission was found to be higher for CH₄ (16.9–34.7 g/m²) in comparison to N₂O (?0.05 to 0.02 g/m²) for all treatments. Biochar application has positive impact on plant variables such as panicle number and weight of panicles. This study suggests that biochar application significantly decrease N₂O emission and increase CH₄ emission possibly due to affecting the availability of organic C in the soil to microbial activity for methanogenesis. Another possibility for enhancing CH₄ emission by following biochar could be attributed to the increase in plant biomass.