. 2023 Jun 30;9(7):e17835. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e17835

Table 6.

Non-linear scoring results and effect of biochar application on soil quality index (SQI). The difference between the means of treatment is separated by least significant difference (LSD) at 5% level of significance.

Treatments	pH	BD	C_tot	MBC	Avail K	DTPA-Zn	SQI
RDF	0.83^D	0.47^B	0.99	0.05^CD	0.01^C	0.95	2.06^D
RDF +0.5 t ha⁻¹ RHB	0.83^CD	0.48^B	1.00	0.23^BCD	0.01^C	0.96	2.16^C
RDF +1.0 t ha⁻¹ RHB	0.84^C	0.52^A	1.00	0.27^BC	0.02^C	0.96	2.21^BC
RDF +2.0 t ha⁻¹ RHB	0.86^B	0.54^A	1.00	0.03^D	0.02^C	0.97	2.16^C
RDF +4.0 t ha⁻¹ RHB	0.86^AB	0.54^A	1.00	0.20^CD	0.03^B	0.97	2.24^B
RDF +8.0 t ha⁻¹ RHB	0.87^AB	0.55^A	1.00	0.46^AB	0.04^AB	0.94	2.35^A
RDF +10.0 t ha⁻¹ RHB	0.87^A	0.55^A	1.00	0.53^A	0.05^A	0.94	2.39^A
SE(d)	0.005	0.014	0.002	0.110	0.006	0.013	0.038
LSD (P ≤ 0.05)	0.0105	0.0298	NS	0.2399	0.0125	NS	0.082

RDF, Recommended dose of fertilizers; Bulk density (Mg m⁻³); C_tot, Total organic carbon (g kg⁻¹); Avail K, Available potassium (kg ha⁻¹); DTPA-Zn, DTPA extractable zinc (mg kg⁻¹).

*means with same letter are not significantly different at P ≤ 0.05.