The research opportunities and needs related biochar are large. Much international activity has taken place on biochar research since the world’s first biochar related conference took place in Australia in 2007. There is now an extensive database on previous conferences and a very active international biochar conference calender.
The IBI research bibliography contains over 1000 biochar related items and is growing fast. Their list of research institutes working on biochar is also impressive.
It would be interesting to see a short summary on the chronology of biochar research in New Zealand. I think it would be fair to say that it has not always been a collaborative journey between the research institutions (Op-ed!). This may say more about research funding structure in NZ than anything else? (and I had better not stray any deeper into unknown territory!). One interesting link NZ has with the origins of biochar is that the late Peter Read (Massey University Center for Energy Research) coined the “biochar” phrase back in 2005? Again, it would be nice to have this history archived somewhere.
It would be great if this group could be a catalyst to pull the biochar research community together in a more collaborative way. I’m hearing that funding competition will always be a major obstacle. This sound like a great topic for the Research forum.
We are going to need members of the research community to join us and provide guidance on how we can collaborate and contribute to research needs. As we get stronger, we can use this strength for advocacy work on research funding.
Given any interest from the research community, we could have separate pages for various branches of research interest… somewhere for planned, ongoing and past biochar research activity to be high-lighted to the community, industry and government. Better understanding by these groups of your research interests and activities may lead to better support.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0959652616322181#! “Due to the realisation of the reinforcement potential of waste based biochar and wool in polymeric composites, in the recent past, their individual flammability, thermal and mechanical properties were determined. Composites were manufactured with biochar and with both biochar … Continue reading →
This report has a global perspective but has strong NZ connections in its authorship. You can access the publication from this link. … Continue reading →
This video is available from the Royal Society of NZ website. I provided notice of this on the ABE FB page back on 9 March 2018, as I was aware that Annette Cowie was a speaker and she has been … Continue reading →
Insight into the effects of biochar on manure composting: Evidence supporting the relationship between N2O emission and denitrifying community(Article) aInstitute of Environmental Science and Technology, Zhejiang University, 866 Yuhangtang Road, Hangzhou 310058, China bCallaghan Innovation Research Ltd, University of Canterbury, … Continue reading →
NZ connections to this study on P leaching. Check out older posts with the P tag… http://soilcarbon.org.nz/tag/phosphorus/ Impact of biochar coated with magnesium (hydr)oxide on phosphorus leaching from organic and mineral soils Water Quality Management Group, Dept. of Soil and … Continue reading →
Investigating the Influence of Biochar Particle Size and Depth of Placement on Nitrous Oxide (N2O) Emissions from Simulated Urine Patches Ainul Faizah Mahmud 1,2,*, Marta Camps-Arbestain 1 and Mike Hedley 1 1 New Zealand Biochar Research Centre, Massey University, Private … Continue reading →
It would be great to get access to this report and assess their conclusion that “Biochar addition could possibly increase soil carbon stocks but it is not yet an economical option for large-scale application in New Zealand.” Management practices to … Continue reading →
I think the following should be of interest in NZ based on the levels of Cd contamination in some of our soils. There are other similar research finding coming from China. I posted a link to a NZ PhD thesis … Continue reading →
Prof. Marta Camps-Arbestain has provided the following summary on current biochar related work taking place at NZBRC, Massey. Please contact Marta if you are interested in finding out more on any of these activities. PhD student: Stanislav Garbuz PhD research … Continue reading →