Biochar Alteration of the Sorption of Substrates and Products in Soil Enzyme Assays

Table 1

Effect of biochar concentration and biochar feedstock on soil pH_water and cation exchange capacity (CEC; cmol Kg⁻¹ soil) of Kettering and Cameroon soils. Data are mean ± SEM (𝑛=3) and 𝑃 values are derived from one-way ANOVA with biochar concentration as the factor. Mean values within each soil and biochar type combination sharing the same letter are not significantly different (𝑃>0.05).

Biochar conc. (mg g^−1)	pH		CEC
	Kettering soil	Cameroon soil	Kettering soil	Cameroon soil
Pine wood biochar
0	7.3 ± 0.2	5.4 ± 0.1	14.9 ± 0.3	8.4 ± 0.2^b
15	7.5 ± 0.1	5.4 ± 0.1	14.9 ± 0.8	9.3 ± 0.3^ab
30	7.4 ± 0.2	5.5 ± 0.1	14.5 ± 0.2	8.7 ± 0.7^b
150	7.5 ± 0.3	5.4 ± 0.1	15.4 ± 0.6	10.1 ± 0.6^a
𝑃 value	0.54	0.56	0.25	0.015
Straw biochar
0	7.3 ± 0.2^c	5.4 ± 0.1^d	14.9 ± 0.3^b	8.4 ± 0.2^c
15	8.4 ± 0.2^b	6.6 ± 0.2^c	15.6 ± 0.3^ab	8.1 ± 0.8^c
30	8.5 ± 0.5^b	7.4 ± 0.3^b	16.1 ± 0.7^a	9.6 ± 0.4^b
150	9.6 ± 0.1^a	8.5 ± 0.4^a	14.8 ± 0.5^b	11.7 ± 0.3^a
𝑃 value	<0.001	<0.001	0.02	<0.001