Long Live the List!
By Erin
There are 3 main renewable energy discussion lists and others that cover a variety of topics: Biomass Cooking Stoves for developing areas of the world, Biomass Gasifiers (mainly for heat and power) and Terra preta -using charcoal to ...
Code Knitter -
Code Knitter
Terra Preta Postings
By arclein(arclein)
This is a list of posts dealing with terra preta in particular and is meant to help you navigate through the development of my thinking. There are other posts apropos to the subject, but this should get you through it.
Global Warming -
Global Warming
Linking corn culture and pine beetles
By arclein(arclein)
In our earlier posts, we have extensively developed the thesis that the adoption of terra preta corn culture globally will not only sequester all the excess carbon but also manufacture high quality soil in a previously unanticipated ...
Global Warming -
Global Warming
Arclein on global warming and renewables
By arclein
... have a free distribution to get the audience created. A principal theme in my Blog has been the coming terra preta revolution in sustainable agriculture. If you are not familiar with this check titles in my blog for corn and biochar.
SustainabilityForum.Com - Your... -
SustainabilityForum.Com - Your Global Sustainability Community!
Excited geology
By Oliver
It's interesting stuff which I point you to in part because how microbes do their stuff is something it's important to understand, in part because this sort of thinking has relevance to the Terra Preta stuff I was extolling a while back ...
Heliophage -
Heliophage
NSCSS.org :: View topic - Soil concept named top green idea in 2006
Terra Preta - The Black Earth I've saved the best for last. Terra preta is new to Western science, but it is an old technology from the Amazon that ...
Terra Preta soils - can the NT reach this level of improved soil ...
By Peter H(Peter H)
Amazonian Dark Earth, or "terra preta do indio", has mystified science for the last hundred years. Three times richer in nitrogen and phosphorous, and twenty times the carbon of normal soils, terra preta is the legacy of ancient ...
AboveCapricorn -
AboveCapricorn
Rural Network
Alfred Harris is a structural biologist with research and commercial interests in biocarbons (charcoal) and their ability to reduce fertiliser requirements ...
Clean Tech: EcoGeek Karl Schroeder on Investments in Environment ...
By The Green Skeptic(The Green Skeptic)
Karl Schroeder: Agrichar is a modern version of "Terra Preta" which was used centuries ago in the Amazon basin to allow the nutrient-poor soils there to produce lavish crops. It's basically a burn-and-bury process that sequesters carbon ...
The Green Skeptic(tm) -
The Green Skeptic™
[quote]
Sequestering Carbon in YOUR Soil - Are There $$ In It For Me?
Sequestering carbon in soil is not a new concept. It happens naturally, but can it be enhanced on farm and can it actually make some dollars for me, on my farm?
The NSW experience is worth examining in some detail, as a similar system could be useful in the tropics as well. There are a number of links with details on the scheme
The Carbon Farmers - Features - The Lab - Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Gateway to Science
provides access, as well as several additional links, with more information.
AboveCapricorn
[IMG]http://abc.net.au/science/features/soilcarbon/img/carbon_level_01.jpg[
/IMG]
Trees versus crops. Carbon levels in forest soils are usually much higher than those under agriculture. Pic: Brian Murphy
the following is from
The Carbon Farmers - Features - The Lab - Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Gateway to Science
A good article to read
Quote:
How soil loses carbon
Professor Alex McBratney from the University of Sydney has been studying soil carbon decline in the Namoi Valley, north western NSW.
The soils in this area have taken a beating, due largely to intensive cotton farming over the past 30 years. Once pastureland, the conversion to cotton crops has seen soil carbon levels decline from 1.5 to 0.8 per cent, he says. How does this happen? In healthy soils, carbon exists as long, sticky string-like molecules.
These strings twist around individual soil particles and literally bind them together. Soil micro-organisms tend not to bother consuming these large, unpalatable molecules, preferring fresh or rotted plant matter – the stems, roots and other plant parts which over time become incorporated into the soil.
But if the soil loses this plant content (because the stubble is burnt or removed), the soil microorganisms have no choice but to make a meal of the carbon molecules. Once the carbon is gone, the structure of the soil breaks down making it difficult to retain water and nutrients.
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