[Terrapreta] Durability of charcoal as carbon sink?

[Sean K. Barry]

Hi Duane and All,

Thanks for your review of my post.  Only the last of your comments, Duane, is below (care of Kurt)  As for the resilience or durability of charcoal in soil?  I need to believe that someone can devise an experiment around the hypothesis that it is quite durable.

Here is my attempt at designing such an experiment (any comments are welcome?)

1) We could seal some newly seeded plants and charcoal amended soil into a green house chamber, having made a proximate analysis (carbon, ash, and moisture content) and weight measurement of the amended soil.

2) Then, operating it like a green house, measure the gas composition and flows in/out, plant growth, and other water and material inputs and outputs of the chamber for a single growing season.

3) Weigh the soil plus plants at the end of the growing season, subtract the net inputs, and perform another proximate analysis and weight measurement of the soil.

4) From this we can extrapolate the changes over time.

5) We can continue to follow the plot and compare it to our predictions as long a we would want.

Perhaps we could ignore continuous flow and composition measurements of the gas in the chamber, if we could compare just the proximate analysis and weight numbers for the soil.

Regards,

SKB

  Of course those designing an accounting system will want proof that charcoal does keep the sink out of the atmosphere with no significant return through decay or conversion back to greenhouse gases in any way in a time period for which the future value remains significant.


  Duane


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