Abstract
Drought is the controlling abiotic stress factor affecting crop production in dryland environments and exposes millions of people to food insecurity in Africa and Asia. Although sorghum is drought tolerant, it is not sufficiently known if biochar can reduce drought-related losses in yields in clay soils for this particular crop. The stomatal morphology and gas exchange responses were investigated of a sorghum cultivar, 'Wad Ahmed' (widely grown throughout Sudan and South Sudan), to drought stress and Acacia seyal biochar application in a greenhouse pot experiment. The experiment was set up in a split-plot, randomized block design with two experimental factors: drought stress (60%, 40%, 20% of field capacity) and biochar (no biochar and 10 Mg/ha). The potting soil was clay textured with 5% carbon content. There were eight replicate pots of each treatment which were arranged randomly in six blocks giving a total of 48 pots. The experiment lasted 153 d from sowing, with 127 d of drought treatment. The results showed that while drought stress had a significant (p < 0.05) effect on gas exchange, water use efficiency, biomass and grain yield, biochar had no significant effect, and neither drought stress nor biochar had a significant effect on stomatal size and density. It may be that high doses of biochar are required to benefit crops grown under drought stress, particularly when the soils have initially high soil organic carbon content, with more time needed for any effect to become evident.
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Claims 6
Claim · model-written summary
Drought significantly affected gas exchange and water use efficiency in sorghum.
SorghumNot reportedComparatorDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“drought stress had a significant (p < 0.05) effect on gas exchange, water use efficiency, biomass and grain yield”
t0“sorghum gas exchange and yield”
Claim · model-written summary
Drought significantly affected sorghum biomass and grain yield.
Not reportedComparatorDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“drought stress had a significant (p < 0.05) effect on gas exchange, water use efficiency, biomass and grain yield”
t0“sorghum gas exchange and yield”
Claim · model-written summary
Biochar had no significant effect on sorghum gas exchange, water use efficiency, biomass, or grain yield.
- Treatment
- biochare0
- Outcome
- gas exchange, water use efficiency, biomass and grain yielde1
- Direction
- no significant effecte0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“biochar had no significant effect”
e1“gas exchange, water use efficiency, biomass and grain yield”
t0“sorghum gas exchange and yield”
Claim · model-written summary
Drought had no significant effect on sorghum stomatal size and density.
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“neither drought stress nor biochar had a significant effect on stomatal size and density”
t0“sorghum gas exchange and yield”
Claim · model-written summary
Biochar had no significant effect on sorghum stomatal size and density.
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“neither drought stress nor biochar had a significant effect on stomatal size and density”
t0“sorghum gas exchange and yield”
Claim · model-written summary
The authors suggested that higher biochar doses and more time may be needed for crops in carbon-rich soils to benefit under drought.
Verbatim
e0“It may be that high doses of biochar are required to benefit crops grown under drought stress, particularly when the soils have initially high soil organic carbon content, with more time needed for any effect to become evident.”
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biochar · growth · SorghumResults differ
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- no effect
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See all 73 papers →Claims are grouped by organism, treatment and what was measured or targeted. A paper counts as positive when any of its claims in the group is positive.