Science Forums 2

[RBlack]

To gjones,

Good post! To keep the world going we are going to need every idea from all sides of the enviornmental debate. One idea that I have had in regards to Terra Preta is to use the binding/adsorbtion properties of carbon to hold nutrients until needed by plants via cation exchange. Do you think this would work with nitrogen/nitrogen compounds? I ask because you seem to have some extensive base knowledge about nitrogen compounds and how they are made and used.

One of the intreging properties of Terra Preta soils are their ability to prevent leaching and to some degree microbial outgassing of CH4 and N2O. How they do this is still unknown due to all the variables that are part of Terra Preta but I envision us using Terra Preta as a delivery system to put selected nutrients into the soil and hold them there. Also using charcoal/carbon properties of holding nutrients and increasing microbial activity may cycle nutrients into stable soil orgain matter (humus), which is another way to store nutrients in the soil until needed by plant uptake.

RBlack