IMPACTS OF BIOCHAR ON EROSION POTENTIAL OF SOIL IN SLOPE LAND

Abstract

The study was conducted to evaluate the soil erosion potential in the slope land incorporated with biochar produced by Pinus pinaster (Pinus), Eucalyptus tereticornis (Eucalyptus) and Camellia sinensis (Tea). This study was conducted in Kandy district between latitudes 7.2906 N, 80.6337 E during 27th of August to 20th of November, 2017. There were sixteen plots of land prepared with the plot size of 1.5 mx 2.0 mand each type of biochar made from pinus, eucalyptus and tea incorporated into the 5 cm top soilin each plotseparately. The Complete Randomized Design was used with four treatments such as soil with tea biochar, soil with eucalyptus biochar, soil with pinus biochar and the control with each of four replicates. At the bottom of these plots, a ditch was excavated and covered with polythene and collected the eroded soil once in two weeks after the incorporation of different biochar with soil. Duncan‟ s multiple range tests were carried out using SPSS 25.0. The estimated soil losses in the plots with tea biochar, pinus biochar, eucalyptus biochar and control were 98.81 g, 219.77 g, 218.96 g and 781.83 g respectively. There was a significant reduction in the rate of soil erosion in the plots with tea biochar as 2.74 gm-2week-1. Plots with pinus and with eucalyptus biochar had almost similar reduction in the soil erosion rate as 6.08 gm-2week-1 and 6.12 gm-2week-1 respectively while the erosion rate in the control plot recorded as 21.72 gm-2week-1. Hence, application of tea biochar as a soil amendment could be recommended to reduce the soil erosion significantly in slope land in the hilly area.