Reduced sulfentrazone phytotoxicity through increased adsorption and anionic species in biochar-amended soils

Burning straw in the field is a common agricultural practice. The effects of adding biochar derived from rice straw to soils on the phytotoxicity of sulfentrazone to Oryza sativa L. were observed. Overall, when 1 % biochar was added to three different soils, the phytotoxicity of sulfentrazone to O. sativa L. decreased, and the concentration that inhibits growth by 50 % (IC50) increased by 1.4 to 7.6 times. To illuminate the influencing mechanisms, the changes in sulfentrazone adsorption to the soil, the soil pH, and the bioavailable sulfentrazone extracted from the soil solution using hollow fiber-based liquid-phase microextraction were studied. The Freundlich constant ( K f ) of sulfentrazone to the soil increased 1.5 to 25 times relative to the K f in the three unamended soils, and the soil pH increased by 0.36 to 1.36 units resulted in a fraction of dissociated sulfentrazone increased by 10.2–17.4 %. In addition, the average concentrations of sulfentrazone in the three unamended soil solutions were 1.3–6.1 times relative to those in the three biochar-amended soil solutions. These results suggest that the sulfentrazone adsorption and soil pH increased when soils were amended with biochar, which decreased the bioavailable concentrations and reduced its phytotoxicity to O. sativa L.