Volume 125, February 2016, Pages 8–15
- a School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science, Michigan Technological University, 1400 Townsend Dr, Houghton, MI 49931, USA
- b U.S.D.A. Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, 1221 S Main St, Moscow, ID 83843, USA
- c U.S.D.A. Agricultural Research Service, Boise, ID 83712, USA
- Received 2 May 2015, Revised 8 September 2015, Accepted 22 September 2015, Available online 6 October 2015
Highlights
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- Companies market biochar as a seed coating to improve plant germination and growth.
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- This is the first study to evaluate biochar as a seed coating on four native species.
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- Biochar seed coatings did not improve germination for any of the four native species.
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- Seeds of two species coated with biochar showed slight improvements in growth.
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- Biochar may not be effective as seed coating for establishing native plants.
Abstract
Direct
seeding is a common large-scale restoration practice for revegetating
arid and semi-arid lands, but success can be limited by moisture and
temperature. Seed coating technologies that use biochar may have the
potential to overcome moisture and temperature limitations on native
plant germination and growth. Biochar is a popular agronomic tool for
improving soil properties, such as water availability and nutrient
retention and has been recently marketed, but not tested, as a seed
coating. We analyzed the effect of biochar seed coating thicknesses on
the germination and growth of four plant species native to western
United States: mountain brome (Bromus marginatus), prairie junegrasss (Koeleria cristata), Wyeth's buckwheat (Eriogonum heracleoides), and western yarrow (Achillea millefolium).
Across different temperature and water potential treatments using
environmental chambers and polyethylene glycol (PEG) solutions, biochar
coating applied at different thicknesses had either a neutral or
negative effect on germination for all species. In the field, biochar
seed coatings slightly improved mountain brome root weight and prairie
junegrass cover. Our results, alongside the high economic expense of
native plant seed and direct seeding operations, suggest that biochar,
by itself, may not be an appropriate seed coating for improving native
plant establishment.
Keywords
- Plant establishment;
- Restoration;
- Temperature;
- Water potential
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