EFFECTS OF SUGARCANE BAGASSE BIOCHAR ON PHYSICO-CHEMICAL PROPERTIES AND PRIMARY PRODUCTIVITY OF INLAND SALINE POND WATER
There is growing interest in commercial Inland saline aquaculture due to the availability of 1.93 mha area resources of saline ground water, but Inland saline aquaculture ponds are facing problems of seepage, primary productivity and nutrient deficiency, particularly potassium, Ca:Mg ratio, available nitrogen. The recent studies give an idea that biochar addition is effective in improving physical, chemical and biological properties of salt-affected soils.
The experiment was conducted for 50 days to assess the effects of sugarcane bagasse biochar on primary productivity and physicochemical properties of inland saline water at C.I.F.E-Rohtak, centre, Haryana, India. The bagasse biochar was applied @ 9 t ha-1 and 18 t ha-1 to inland saline water in the FRP tank (300 L) containing inland saline pond sediment. The water samples was collected in 7 days interval and parameters estimated by using the standard methods of APHA (2005).
In T1, T2 treatments biochar was mixed with sediment and in T3, T4 treatments applied to water. There was significant increasing(P<0.05) trend in pH and available-N (NH4+-N / NO3-N) till 20th and 30th days respectively and further decreased till end of the experiment of T4. There was significant increase (P<0.05) in TSS till 10th day and potassium was increased highest (30%) in T4. There were no significant changes in Ca, Mg, Na and TDS till the end of the experiment. The phosphorous (PO4-3) level of water in all treatments increased than control until 30th days and then decreased till the 50th day and T4 showed the highest increase in phosphorous (0.136 to 0.231 mg L-1). The primary productivity estimated in the form chlorophyll-a concentration significantly increased in all treatment and highest in T4 (0.251 mgm-3).
Among all the treatments, T4 showed best result for water quality parameters and primary productivity. The T3 and T2 showed the comparatively same result. Overall, the study provides a substantial result for the validation of the hypothesis that biochar improves the physicochemical properties and primary productivity of inland saline water.
