Revealing the Role of Biochar in Regulating Soil Carbon and Nitrogen

Dear Colleagues,

Soil carbon and nitrogen cycles are vital for fertility, productivity, and greenhouse gas emissions. Biochar, a sustainable carbon-rich amendment, is widely used, but its long-term field aging (e.g., leaching, freeze–thaw) alters its structure, soil carbon stability, and nitrogen transformations, triggering cascading microbial effects. However, variations in feedstock, pyrolysis, aging degree, and application rate cause inconsistent responses across soils and climates, limiting optimized biochar use.

This Special Issue seeks to reveal carbon sequestration mechanisms, nitrogen regulation pathways, and aging-driven responses using advanced analytics, omics, isotopes, and modeling. We invite original articles, reviews, and methods on biochar aging, soil carbon fractions, nitrogen processes, microbial regulation, greenhouse gas fluxes, and sustainable agricultural optimization. The key themes we seek to explore include the following areas of interest:

1. Biochar regulation on soil organic carbon sequestration, carbon pool fraction turnover and organic carbon stability.
2. Effects of biochar amendment on soil nitrogen fractions transformation and soil nitrogen retention capability.
3. Carbon–nitrogen coupling relationship and stoichiometric balance of biochar-amended agricultural soil.
4. Microbial community and functional gene mechanisms of soil carbon–nitrogen cycle regulated by biochar.
5. Biochar dosage effects on farmland soil carbon sink capacity and nitrogen biogeochemical balance.
6. Optimization and mitigation strategies for negative effects of aged biochar on farmland soil nutrients.

Prof. Dr. Jinfeng Yang
Prof. Dr. Cuncang Jiang
Prof. Dr. Yu Lan
Guest Editors

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