If any forumites would be willing, I need some serious help to update and improve my terra preta knowledge. I know that many of you come from a wide variety of backgrounds and interests, and I hope your perspectives and knowledge will come to my aid. I've been playing with it up to this point as an enthusiastic hobbyist and gardener, but I want to advance it much further than that. I'm considering working with one of the biology professors at my university who specializes in soil microbe-plant interactions, and of course, we know that terra preta does this very well.
My educational background is mostly in microbiology (and I should have my degree in 3-4 semesters, now that I've picked it up again).
If you can recommend any textbooks or articles (pdfs, references, links, etc.) for the following areas which you consider key or top-notch reading, I'd really appreciate it:
1. Soil microbiology and soil animals/invertebrates (this is my weak area--I know a heck of a lot more about human pathogens than I do about nitrogen-fixing bacteria, mycorrhyzal fungi, etc.). Got anything on the rhizosphere? Please, mention it. I'd like to know what's in the soil
2. Soil types, classification, and chemistry or physical characteristics.
While I think I understand most of the basics--the whys, hows, and whats--of terra preta, I think my grasp of the details and maybe important interactions and fundamentals might be poor. I need technical stuff that dives into the details. I should be able to handle it...or if I can't right now, with more learning and thinking, someday. One thing that I learned when I was doing research is that the only thing you know for sure is how much you don't know. And I have to admit I don't know a lot.
I'm going to go back and dig a lot through the forum for links, pdfs, etc., such as in this thread:
http://hypography.com/forums/terra-p...web-sites.html
I'd like to get a hold of Lehman's
Amazonian Dark Earths, but it seems it's hard to find. Amazon's out of it at the moment, and it costs anywhere from $300-500 US dollars from sellers on there.
If you have a copy you'd be willing to sell for less than that or know where I can get one, please let me know.
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Teach a Wall Street banker how to build a fire and he'll be warm for the night. Set a Wall Street banker on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
Logic
The art of thinking and reasoning in strict accordance with the limitations and incapacities of the human misunderstanding.
--Ambrose Bierce,
The Devil's Dictionary
