[Terrapreta] Biochar and Fungi

[Shengar at aol.com]

>From Michael;
 
"Classifying, naming, describing, all soil micro flora/fauna in all climes  
is probably beyond anyone's reach. Apart from the difficulty of growing soil  
micro flora in lab conditions.
Their dynamic interactions with each  other and plants are only poorly 
understood 
We would need a NASA type budget  even to have a chance of discovering what 
life lives under our feet on this  planet.
SEE
_http://forums.hypography.com/environmental-studies/11569-we-need-trillion-mor
e-indoor-plants-8.html#post194993_ 
(http://forums.hypography.com/environmental-studies/11569-we-need-trillion-more-indoor-plants-8.html#post194993) 
for  more discussion and posts about this very important aspect of Terra  
preta

We still don't know if it is a unique suite of Amazonian  micro-organisms 
that make TP work as well as it does there. "


To this end I have been researching  Metagenomic work with soils. Way  over 
my head, sending emails to convince these guys to support a  Metagenomic 
Project for Terra Preta Soil Technology.   

I sent off my TP post & links to all the contacts on the soils  studies on 
this list ;
_http://www.genomesonline.org/gold.cgi?want=Metagenomes_ 
(http://www.genomesonline.org/gold.cgi?want=Metagenomes) 
 
 
 
 
Rebecca,   My thoughs for your Someone;
 
  Charles Mann, in the May issue of National Geographic, reminds  us of the 
Columbian Exchange's profound reuniting of life on earth. Earth  & Blood worms 
as invasive species?! ...WOW.
 
Our agriculture has already stirred the weebeastie pot, and over 10,000  
years pumped a majority of GHG
to the atmosphere.
 
Carbon back to the soils is the only road home.
 
All of us  thrive with good infrastructure, char goes way beyond the old saw 
of  "Feed  the soil not the plant" to feeding, clothing, housing, transport, 
utilities  and health care to the soil.
 
The small  steps being taken now by many diverse folks on the list, academia, 
and private  sector to develop protocols should show us if there will be any 
runaway problems  with opportunistic bugs or fungi in building these soil  
communities. 
 
We have been  groping in the microbial dark for a very long time, now with 
tools like  Metagenomics, we will see the light of our symbiotic  relationships  
with  weebeasties in our health as well as our soils.
 
 
 
P. S.  
Yesterday I was contacted by a journalist for the New York Times, wanting  to 
do a carbon to the soil story. She was crest fallen when I told her that  
SCIAM did a Terra Preta article in May, she wanted an exclusive. I sent her all  
my links and she will be pitching the story to her editor for a full 
assignment.  I comforted her by saying that no major paper had done a TP story and that 
 hardly anyone but academics read Nature and SCIAM.  
 
CROSS YOUR FINGERS.........This could start balls rolling.........NYT;     
Circulation 1,120,420 Daily
1,627,062 Sunday
 

 
 
Erich J.  Knight
Shenandoah Gardens
1047 Dave Berry Rd.
McGaheysville, VA.  22840
(540)  289-9750
shengar at aol.com




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