Pedosphere (2): 623--637, 2026
ISSN 1002-0160/CN 32-1315/P
©2026 Soil Science Society of China
Published by Elsevier B.V. and Science Press
| Triple impact of biochar, no-tillage and cover crop: Enhancing soil carbon and climate resilience in soybean farming |
Qiliang HUANG1, Ratih Kemala DEWI2,3, Yingting GONG4, Rahmatullah HASHIMI5, Peiran LI6, Masakazu KOMATSUZAKI3,7 |
1 United Graduate School of Agriculture Science, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Tokyo 183-8509 (Japan)
2 College of Vocational Studies, IPB University, Cilibende, Bogor 16151 (Indonesia)
3 College of Agriculture, Ibaraki University, Ibaraki 300-0393 (Japan)
4 Institute of Agricultural Resources and Environment, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Guangzhou 510642 (China)
5 Texas A&M AgriLife Research, Texas A&M University System, El Paso, TX 77843 (USA)
6 State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution Health Risk Assessment, South China Institute of Environmental Sciences, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Guangzhou 510655 (China)
7 Green-Bio Technology Center, Ibaraki University, Ibaraki 300-0393 (Japan) |
| ABSTRACT |
| With the dissemination of conservation agriculture, no-tillage (NT) and cover crops have been widely adopted globally. However, their effects on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are controversial. Biochar is posited to mitigate climate change by increasing carbon (C) sequestration and decreasing GHG emissions in soil. To investigate the comprehensive effect of NT, cover crop, and biochar on soil organic C (SOC) sequestration and net global warming potential (GWP), a split-split-plot experiment was conducted in the experimental field at the Center for International Field Agriculture Research and Education, Ibaraki University, Japan. The experiment involved various combinations of two tillage methods, NT and moldboard plowing (MP), two cover crop treatments, fallow (FA) and rye (RY), and two biochar treatments, biochar application (WB) and no biochar application (NB). The NT and RY treatments demonstrated a trend of increasing N2O emission, while WB tended to reduce the N2O emission in NT plots. Compared with the MP-FA-NB treatment, the NT-RY-WB treatment increased SOC stock (0-30 cm) by 23.2% in 2020 and 30.2% in 2021, indicating that this combination promoted C sequestration. Due to the heightened SOC stock, the net carbon dioxide (CO2) retention effectively compensated for the GWP arising from non-CO2 emissions. Consequently, the combination of NT, RY, and WB positively contributed to a decreased net GWP in the soybean field (-1 231 and -2 767 kg CO2 equivalent ha-1 year-1 in 2020 and 2021, respectively). These findings highlight the considerable potential of the combination of NT, RY, and WB for SOC sequestration and net GWP decrease, positioning it as an environmentally beneficial agricultural system for mitigating climate change during long-term food production in Asia. |
| Key Words: biochar application,carbon sequestration,climate change,conservation tillage,global warming potential,greenhouse gas emission,rye,soil organic C |
| Citation: Huang Q, Dewi R K, Gong Y T, Hashimi R, Li P R, Komatsuzaki M. 2026. Triple impact of biochar, no-tillage and cover crop: Enhancing soil carbon and climate resilience in soybean farming. Pedosphere. 36(2): 623-637. |
| |
|
View Full Text
|
|
|
|
