Combined application of biochar and peatmoss for mitigation of drought stress in tobacco

Qamar Uz Zaman; Muzammal Rehman; Youhong Feng; Zhiyuan Liu; Ghulam Murtaza; Khawar Sultan; Kamran Ashraf; Mohamed S Elshikh; Dunia A Al Farraj; Muhammad Rizwan; Rashid Iqbal; Gang Deng

doi:10.1186/s12870-024-05576-6

Combined application of biochar and peatmoss for mitigation of drought stress in tobacco

BMC Plant Biol. 2024 Sep 14;24(1):862. doi: 10.1186/s12870-024-05576-6.

Authors

Qamar Uz Zaman^{1

2}, Muzammal Rehman³, Youhong Feng¹, Zhiyuan Liu¹, Ghulam Murtaza⁴, Khawar Sultan², Kamran Ashraf⁵, Mohamed S Elshikh⁶, Dunia A Al Farraj⁶, Muhammad Rizwan⁷, Rashid Iqbal^{8

9}, Gang Deng¹⁰

Affiliations

¹ School of Agriculture, Yunnan University, Kunming, Yunnan, 650504, China.
² Department of Environmental Sciences, The University of Lahore, Lahore, 54590, Pakistan.
³ College of Agriculture, Guangxi Key Laboratory of Agro-Environment and Agric- Products Safety, Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Breeding and Germplasm Innovation, Guangxi University, Nanning, 530004, China.
⁴ School of Agriculture, Yunnan University, Kunming, Yunnan, 650504, China. murtazabotanist@gmail.com.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, 200237, PR China.
⁶ Department of Botany and Microbiology, College of Science, King Saud University, P.O. 2455, Riyadh, 11451, Saudi Arabia.
⁷ Institute of Crop Science and Resource Conservation (INRES), University of Bonn, 53115, Bonn, Germany. m.rizwan@uni-bonn.de.
⁸ Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Agriculture and Environment, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur, 63100, Pakistan. rashid.iqbal@iub.edu.pk.
⁹ Department of Life Sciences, Western Caspian University, Baku, Azerbaijan. rashid.iqbal@iub.edu.pk.
¹⁰ School of Agriculture, Yunnan University, Kunming, Yunnan, 650504, China. denggang1986@ynu.edu.cn.

Abstract

Drought poses a significant ecological threat that limits the production of crops worldwide. The objective of this study to examine the impact of soil applied biochar (BC) and peatmoss (PM) on the morpho-biochemical and quality traits of tobacco plants under drought conditions. In the present experiment work, a pot trial was conducted with two levels of drought severity (~ well-watered 75 ± 5% field capacity) and severe drought stress (~ 35 ± 5% field capacity), two levels of peatmoss (PM) @ 5% [PM+ (with peatmoss) and PM- (without peatmoss)] and three levels of rice straw biochar (BC₀ = no biochar; BC₁ = 150 mg kg^{- 1}; and BC₂ = 300 mg kg^{- 1} of soil) in tobacco plants. The results indicate that drought conditions significantly impacted the performance of tobacco plants. However, the combined approach of BC and PM significantly improved the growth, biomass, and total chlorophyll content (27.94%) and carotenoids (32.00%) of tobacco. This study further revealed that the drought conditions decreased the production of lipid peroxidation and proline accumulation. But the synergistic approach of BC and PM application increased soluble sugars (17.63 and 12.20%), soluble protein (31.16 and 15.88%), decreased the proline accumulation (13.92 and 9.03%), and MDA content (16.40 and 8.62%) under control and drought stressed conditions, respectively. Furthermore, the combined approach of BC and PM also improved the leaf potassium content (19.02%) by limiting the chloride ions (33.33%) under drought stressed conditions. Altogether, the balanced application of PM and BC has significant potential as an effective approach and sustainable method to increase the tolerance of tobacco plants subjected to drought conditions. This research uniquely highlights the combined potential of PM and BC as an eco-friendly strategy to enhance plant resilience under drought conditions, offering new insights into sustainable agricultural practices.

Keywords: Biochar; Biomass; Drought; Growth; Peatmoss; Quality; Sustainable; Well-watered.

MeSH terms

Charcoal*
Droughts
Lipid Metabolism
Nicotiana* / growth & development
Nicotiana* / physiology
Photosynthesis
Plant Leaves
Principal Component Analysis
Reactive Oxygen Species
Sphagnopsida*
Water

Substances

biochar
Charcoal
Reactive Oxygen Species
Water