Improving Phosphorus Availability and Wheat Yield in Saline Soil of the Lake Urmia Basin through Enriched Biochar and Microbial Inoculation

To reduce requirements for conventional chemical fertilizer and alleviate salinity stress in soils, a glasshouse experiment was conducted to assess the effects of enriched biochar on phosphatase activity, microbial respiration wheat yield non-saline saline soils from Lake Urmia basin (electrical conductivities 2 dS.m−1 15 dS.m−1, respectively). Nine treatments were tested: control, 1:1 mixture apple grape biochars (BC), phosphate solubilizing bacteria (PSB), BC plus PSB (BC-PSB), rock (BC-RP), by (BC-RP-PSB), HCl (BC-RP-HCl) or H3PO4 (BC-RP-H3PO4) (TSP). The addition decreased soil pH (by 0.5–0.9 units) increased available phosphorus (>7-fold). In both highest alkaline activity obtained BC-H3PO4-RP BC-HCl-RP. Wheat growth parameters reclaimed after application, indicating superior dry matter yields compared control non-enriched significantly higher TSP. Beneficial pH, biomass demonstrated that could partly substitute fertilizers increase plant salt conditions. However, further field studies are needed understand benefits different climates.