ABSTRACT
Biochar application affects forage sorghum under salinity stress

Muhi Eldeen Hussien Ibrahim1*, 2, Adam Yousif Adam Ali1, 3, Guisheng Zhou1, Aboagla Mohammed Ibrahim Elsiddig1, Guanglong Zhu1, Nimir Eltyb Ahmed Nimir4, and Irshad Ahmad1
 
Salinity is a growing problem worldwide and techniques are needed to mitigate this problem.Thee xperiment was conducted to examine if biochar could improve growth, physiological response, and DM yield of forage sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) under saline conditions. Sorghum seedlings were transplanted in sandy loam soil (0-20 cm layer of a Typic Fluvaquents Entisols) treated with sodium chloride at rates of 0.26, 5.8, and 12.6 dS m-1. The saline soil was treated with four biochar rates, 0%, 2.5%, 5%, and 10% (w/w). Plant height, fresh weight, photosynthetic rate (A), stomatal conductance (gs), transpiration rate (E), catalase (CAT), peroxidase (POD), and superoxide dismutase (SOD) were affected by the interaction between salinity and biochar. At the 12.6 dS m-1salinity rate, 5% biochar increased plant height, leaf area, fresh weight, DM yields, A, gs, and E by 20.1%, 16.5%, 26.2%, 27.4%, 14.5%, 31.1%, and 26.7%, respectively. At the 12.6 dS m-1salinity rate, 5% biochar decreased CAT, POD, and SOD by 56.8%, 44.8%, and 18.9%, respectively. Furthermore, among all biochar rates used in this investigation, the 5% rate had a better result for forage sorghumproduction. These findings demonstrated that the lowest biochar soil amendment application could alleviate the harmful impact of salinity; a high biochar application rate can have a negativeinfluence.
Keywords: Forage yield, salinity, soil amendment, Sorghum bicolor.
1Yangzhou University, Joint International Research Laboratory of Agriculture and Agri-Product Safety of the Ministry of Education of China, Yangzhou 225009, China.*Corresponding author (mhsinada@yahoo.com).
2Sudan University of Science and Technology, College of Agricultural Studies, Khartoum 13311, Sudan.
3University of Gadarif, College of Agriculture and Environment Science, Gadarif 449, Sudan.
4University of Khartoum, Faculty of Agriculture, Khartoum 11115, Sudan.