Responses of aquatic vegetables to biochar amended soil and water environments: a critical review

Aquatic vegetables, including lotus root, water spinach, cress, watercress and so on, have been cultivated as commercial crops for a long time. Though aquatic vegetables have great edible and medicinal values, the increasing demands for aquatic vegetables with high quality have led to higher requirements of their soil and water environments. Unfortunately, the soil and water environment often face many problems such as nutrient imbalance, excessive fertilization, and pollution. Therefore, a new cost-effective and eco-friendly solution for addressing the above issues is urgently required. Biochars, one type of pyrolysis product obtained from agricultural and forestry waste, show great potential in reducing fertilizer application, upgrading soil quality and remediating pollution. Application of biochars in aquatic vegetable cultivation would not only improve the yield and quality, but also reduce its edible risk. Biochars can improve the soil micro-environment, soil microorganism and soil enzyme activities. Furthermore, biochars can remediate the heavy metal pollution, organic pollution and nitrogen and phosphorus non-point source pollution in the water and soil environments of aquatic vegetables, which promotes the state of cultivation conditions and thereby improves the yield and quality of aquatic vegetables. However, the harmful substances such as heavy metals, PAHs, etc. derived from biochars can cause environmental risks, which should be seriously considered. In this review, the application of biochars in aquatic vegetable cultivation is briefly summarized. The changes of soil physicochemical and biological properties, the effects of biochars in remediating water and soil environmental pollution and the impacts of biochars on the yield and quality of aquatic vegetables are also discussed. This review will provide a comprehensive overview of the research progress on the effects of biochars on soil and water environments for aquatic vegetable cultivation.