Sustained benefits of long-term biochar application for food security and climate change mitigation

Biochar application offers significant potential to enhance food security and mitigate climate change. However, most evidence stems from short-term field experiments (≤3 y), leaving uncertainty about the long-term sustainability of these benefits, especially with annual biochar additions to soils. To address this knowledge gap, we analyzed a global dataset from 438 studies (3,229 observations) and found that long-term annual biochar application (≥4 y) not only sustains but often enhances its benefits. These include improved crop yields (+10.8%), reductions in CH<sub>4</sub> (-13.5%) and N<sub>2</sub>O (-21.4%) emissions, and increased soil organic carbon content (+52.5%). In contrast, these benefits tend to diminish over time with single biochar applications due to the aging effect of biochar. Results from 29 global long-term experiments (4 to 12 y) confirm these sustained benefits for crop yield and greenhouse gas mitigation, although the magnitude of effects varies with soil properties, climate, and management practices. To maximize biochar's long-term benefits for global food security and climate change mitigation, it is essential to develop viable strategies, such as applying biochar at intervals of several years while tailoring practices to local soil, climate, and cropping conditions.

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Publication Details

Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Published
2025-08-11
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2509237122
Citations
20
Primary Topic
Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
23.72

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article

Sustained benefits of long-term biochar application for food security and climate change mitigation

Chaopu Ti, Klaus Butterbach‐Bahl, Xiangyang Shu, Minghao Zhuang et al.
20 citations
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics
23.72
article

Sustained benefits of long-term biochar application for food security and climate change mitigation

Chaopu Ti, Klaus Butterbach‐Bahl, Xiangyang Shu, Minghao Zhuang, Xingren Liu, Mingsheng Fan, Pete Smith, Jingrui Yang, Kees Jan van Groenigen, Rattan Lal, Longlong Xia, Xiaoyuan Yan, Zhangliu Du, Xiaoyan Jiao, Jun Meng, Xiaori Han, Weilu Wang, Jia Liu, Zhandong Pan, Hongguang Cai, Xu Zhao, Yanhong Cheng, Guangmu Tang
article en
20 citations

Abstract

Biochar application offers significant potential to enhance food security and mitigate climate change. However, most evidence stems from short-term field experiments (≤3 y), leaving uncertainty about the long-term sustainability of these benefits, especially with annual biochar additions to soils. To address this knowledge gap, we analyzed a global dataset from 438 studies (3,229 observations) and found that long-term annual biochar application (≥4 y) not only sustains but often enhances its benefits. These include improved crop yields (+10.8%), reductions in CH<sub>4</sub> (-13.5%) and N<sub>2</sub>O (-21.4%) emissions, and increased soil organic carbon content (+52.5%). In contrast, these benefits tend to diminish over time with single biochar applications due to the aging effect of biochar. Results from 29 global long-term experiments (4 to 12 y) confirm these sustained benefits for crop yield and greenhouse gas mitigation, although the magnitude of effects varies with soil properties, climate, and management practices. To maximize biochar's long-term benefits for global food security and climate change mitigation, it is essential to develop viable strategies, such as applying biochar at intervals of several years while tailoring practices to local soil, climate, and cropping conditions.

Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesVol. 122(33)
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (DE), Shanxi Agricultural University (CN), Shenyang Agricultural University (CN), Gansu Agricultural University (CN), University of Aberdeen (GB), Aarhus University (DK), University of Exeter (GB), Ministry of Agriculture (EE), Jilin Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CN), Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CN), Ministry of Agriculture (ID), Ministry of Agriculture (CA), Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development in Agriculture (CN), Jiangxi Institute of Red Soil (CN), Carbon180 (US), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (CN), Ministry of Education (MV), University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), Jiangxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CN), Institute of Soil Science (CN), Ministry of Agriculture (PS), China Agricultural University (CN), The Ohio State University (US), Sichuan Normal University (CN), Yangzhou University (CN)
National Natural Science Foundation of China, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Zero hunger
Openalex Percentile: Top 0%
Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics
23.72
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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