Combining biochar and organic amendments; Claudia Kammann, Bruno Glaser and Hans-Peter Schmidt
Published as Chapter 6 in: Simon Shackley, Greet Ruysschaert, Kor Zwar and Bruno Glaser
(editors): Biochar in European Soils, Routledge, London, 2016, pp. 136-164
see: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/301295876_Combining_Biochar_and_Organic_Amendments
This chapter summarizes of the historic context of the relatively recent re-discovery of the nutrient holding capacity of biochar, & it’s enduring potential to capture nutrients & thus enable plants to re-use nutrients otherwise leached / lost from the uppermost soil layers.  It describes how biochar associated with ancient European sites of charcoal production, binds onto organic matter associated with centuries of forest leaf litter, agriculture crop residues & animal manures. The optimal placement of biochar within soils is examined from an ecological perspective that root zones (or ‘rhizospheres”) and soil aggregates are biodiversity & energy enriched ‘hotspots’