Biochar application to the soil has been recommended as a carbon (C) management approach to sequester C and improve soil quality. Three-year experiments were conducted to investigate the interactive effects of three types of amendments on microbial biomass carbon, soil dehydrogenase activity and soil microbial community abundance in luvisols of arable land in the Czech Republic. Four different treatments were studied, which were, only NPK as a control, NPK + cattle manure, NPK + biochar and NPK + combination of manure with biochar. The results demonstrate that all amendments were effective in increasing the fungal and bacterial biomass, as is evident from the increased values of bacterial and fungal phospholipid fatty acid analysis. The ammonia-oxidizing bacteria population increases with the application of biochar, and it reaches its maximum value when biochar is applied in combination with manure. The overall results suggest that co-application of biochar with manure changes soil properties in favor of increased microbial biomass. It was confirmed that the application of biochar might increase or decrease soil activity, but its addition, along with manure, always promotes microbial abundance and their activity. The obtained results can be used in the planning and execution of the biochar-based soil amendments.

Strigolactones (SLs) are a comparatively novel class of phytohormones that are involved in the maintenance of plant architecture with key regulation of lateral branching. They are also reported to play an important role in regulating plant responses to various abiotic stresses. The potential of SLs to improve crop resilience and productivity needs to be effectively translated into agriculture. Therefore, both the endogenous biosynthesis of SLs and their exogenous application need to be thoroughly investigated to understand and exploit the mechanism underlying the alleviation of abiotic stress responses. Although several reviews have emphasised the biosynthesis of SLs in plants under abiotic stress, the mechanism underlying the alleviation of stress responses upon exogenous application has been less explored. Accordingly, in this review, although we have briefly discussed the beneficial effects of endogenous production of SLs in different sections, our main focus is to summarise the influence of exogenous SLs on the growth and development of different plant species grown under various abiotic stresses including drought, nutrient, heavy metal, and salinity stress. Apart from providing an overview of the transcriptomic studies conducted to observe the alleviating effects of SLs on abiotic stress responses, the research gaps in this field were briefly discussed. The review provides insight for researchers to conduct further research on SLs and fill the gap so that they can be effectively used for sustainable agriculture.