Mientras la mayoría de estudios enfocados en biochar destacan los beneficios de su utilización, solo una cantidad pequeña de investigaciones no han demostrado beneficios económicos considerables que permitan promover su uso ampliamente en la agricultura. El objetivo de este estudio fue evaluar los efectos de la aplicación de biochar en diferentes concentraciones con los N-fertilizantes granulares, para demostrar una forma potencialmente rentable para promover su uso extendido por agricultores. El delineamiento experimental fue en bloques completos al azar, con 5 repeticiones por tratamiento. Los tratamientos de fertilidad del suelo se constituyeron: 1) 0 kg Urea 2) 380,5 kg Urea/ha, 3) 285 kg Urea + 95 kg biochar /ha, 4) 190 kg Urea + 190 kg biochar/ha. Cuatro meses después de la aplicación de los tratamientos se cosechó el grano de maíz terminado y se procedió a su secado, par...

Nitrogen (N) cycling in rangeland soils could potentially be controlled by water supply, stocking rates, or a range of other variables, such as ecosystem N stocks. To gauge the relative importance and elucidate possible interactions among these factors, we measured many abiotic variables to identify first-order controls of δ15N for Patagonia's rangeland soils under contrasting historical grazing intensities. The results showed that δ15N values declined as water availability increased. The effects of precipitation and stocking rate on soil δ15N values were additive, and the effect of precipitation far outweighed the effects of grazing pressure. The soil N stock was a weak predictive variable for modeling variation in δ15N of the soil. Earlier assumptions about an inflection point for N cycling and δ15N values related to aridity were not confirmed. We conclude that variation in water ...

In the last decades, the intensive use of nitrogen fertilizers in annual and perennial crops has increased in Peru. These fertilizers are quickly available to plants by converting to nitrates, increasing crop yields. However, nitrogen fertilizers are very volatile and are also lost easily by leaching. This lost nitrogen (N) implies economic costs and leads to environmental problems such as eutrophication. Biochar, a new soil amendment, has been suggested as a solution to these problems; however, there has been little research on the subject in Peru. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of biochar application on corn yield and nitrogen balance in soils (Entisols with alluvial deposition) in San Ramon (Peru). Biochar was produced from green waste and pig manure. The research design considered five treatments: Control (T1), 7 t·ha-1 of pig manure (T2), 17.5 t·ha-1 of bio...

La contaminación de suelos peruanos por uso indiscriminado de mercurio conlleva al riesgo de absorción del metal por las plantas cercanas a estos suelos y en consecuencia posiblemente a toda la cadena trófica del lugar. Es por eso que con esta investigación se hace un esfuerzo por encontrar soluciones costo-efectivas y amigables con el medio ambiente, como el uso de biocarbón (BC), que favorezcan la retención e inmovilización del mercurio en el suelo. El objetivo de este estudio fue determinar la eficiencia en la retención de Hg en el suelo de cuatro tipos de biocarbón compostado, evaluando las diferencias entre los diferentes tipos de biocarbón generados a dos temperaturas (300 y 680°C) y activados con adición de ácido fosfórico (0,1 L•kg-1) o no activado. Se calculó el Coeficiente de Absorción Biológica (BAC), el cual mide la distribución del metal en el sistema sue...

Peru is the eighth largest producer of cacao beans globally, but high cadmium contents are constraining access to international markets which have set upper thresholds for permitted concentrations in chocolate and derivatives. Preliminary data have suggested that high cadmium concentrations in cacao beans are restricted to specific regions in the country, but to date no reliable maps exist of expected cadmium concentrations in soils and cacao beans. Drawing on >2000 representative samples of cacao beans and soils we developed multiple national and regional random forest models to develop predictive maps of cadmium in soil and cacao beans across the area suitable for cacao cultivation. Our model projections show that elevated concentrations of cadmium in cacao soils and beans are largely restricted to the northern parts of the country in the departments of Tumbes, Piura, Amazonas and Lore...