Potential Impacts Of Soil Aging On TDR Calibrations Of Biochar Amended Urban And Coastal Soils
| Author(s) | McCune, Ryan | |
| Date Accessioned | 2022-07-21T16:39:24Z | |
| Date Available | 2022-07-21T16:39:24Z | |
| Publication Date | 2022-05 | |
| Abstract | Biochar, biomass pyrolyzed at high temperatures in low oxygen environments, is added to soils to improve physiochemical properties including stormwater runoff reduction, saturated hydraulic conductivity , and plant growth. The measure of these physiochemical properties is related to the amended soil’s volumetric water content. Time domain reflectometry is a quick and cost-effective method of measuring volumetric water content of soils. However, this method requires calibration for use in biochar-amended soils. This study determined calibration curves for soil samples from six field sites from Maryland and Delaware. The actual biochar content within these samples was also measured. These results were then analyzed to investigate the potential impacts of the aging of biochar on the resulting TDR calibration curve. TDR calibration curves were found to definitively vary with measured biochar content. Higher mass percentages of biochar generally resulted in higher measured TDR periods. Biochar contents of field samples were also found to vary significantly from the assumed biochar contents by mass. It is suggested by the results from two field sites that aging of biochar samples in the field may impact the TDR calibration results. | en_US |
| Advisor | Paul T. Imhoff | |
| Program | Environmental Engineering | |
| URL | https://udspace.udel.edu/handle/19716/31138 | |
| Publisher | University of Delaware | en_US |
| Keywords | Biochar | en_US |
| Keywords | Time domain reflectometry | en_US |
| Keywords | Coastal soil | en_US |
| Title | Potential Impacts Of Soil Aging On TDR Calibrations Of Biochar Amended Urban And Coastal Soils | en_US |
| Type | Thesis | en_US |