3. Results and discussion
3.1. The effect of CA on soil and plant
The effect of biochar application (CA) on saturated hydraulic
conductivity (SHC) and xylem sap flow (XSF) in Exp.1 is shown in
Table 2. The ANOVA for SHC and XSF indicated that the main effect
of CA on SHC and XSF was significant at P = 0.01. The significant
interaction effect of CA and site (S) on XSF (P = 0.05, data not
presented) showed that the CA had a different effect at the two
sites. For both parameters, no significant difference was detected
at HK1, but clear differences in SHC and XSF were observed at LO1.
The observation that high CA amounts resulted in higher SHC and
XSF at both sites suggested that CA improved not only soil water
permeability but also soil water holding capacity and thereby plant
water availability. Similar improvements due to CA were reported
by Glaser et al. (2002).