[Terrapreta] Anthropogenic casue for Global Warming

[Sean K. Barry]

Hi Jim,

You didn't read or even glance at that paper, which I attached?  Or you missed the Materials and Methods paragraph at the front of the paper?  The experiment was done in greenhouses Cali, Columbia.

Soil sampled
from the top 0.2 m of a clay-loam oxisol (Typic Haplustox)
from the Matazul research site (4°19'N, 72°39'W) at the
Colombian Eastern Planes (Llanos) was used. Roots and
visible plant residues were removed, and then the soil was
air-dried.

Dr. Christoph Steiner is an associate of Dr. Johannes Lehmann's.  He also did his experiments using soil from the upland plateaus in South America (Brazil).  The soil type he used was also low-fertility, acidic, Andisol?, Oxisol?, clay-loam type soils.  They have been working there, trying to replicate the Terra Preta, which was found there.

Regards,

SKB
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Jim Joyner<mailto:jimstoytn at yahoo.com> 
  To: terrapreta at bioenergylists.org<mailto:terrapreta at bioenergylists.org> 
  Sent: Friday, November 09, 2007 8:46 AM
  Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] Anthropogenic casue for Global Warming


  From: Sean K. Barry <sean.barry at juno.com<mailto:sean.barry at juno.com>>

   

   . . . I'm am pretty sure there was at least 10 tons of leaves and vines per acre after the crush (grape harvest).
  Sean,

  Could be, but I think this may be exceptional. And, grapes aren't grown everywhere. But what I am suggesting in no way means it can't be done. Farmers just may have to be more clever to obtain the biomass.

  I got my 100+ tons per acre of charcoal from a paper written by Johannes Lehmann at Cornell.  They were discussing charcoal concentrations at 60 g per kg of soil (The paper is attached).  In it, they showed that the best results (for yield in nitrogen fixing beans) that they achieved was at that concentration (60 g kg-1).  Below here is the paragraph at the end where they came up with 121.5 tons per hectare (10,000 sq meters = ~2.47 acres).  So, your number 50 tons/acre is closer!  (121.5 metric tons / 2.47 = 49.2 metric tons, 1 metric ton = ~1.1 metric tons, s0 ~55 tons acre-1) 

  I have no reason to doubt this but it is probably still very ball-parkish because there nothing here about the particular soil or climate they are using/testing. do you know where they did this testing? South America? new York? Soils' natural holding capacities vary a lot.and the climate can have a big of affect on the soils. The above looks more like the USDA's typical one-size-fits-all approach.

  Kevin sent me a link to some data on experiments in Brazil. One place showed a gain of <2 up to 44 in the CEC. That is incredible! They didn't say, but the soil must have been a sandy soil or maybe just sand. http://www.georgiaitp.org/carbon/PDF%20Files/CSteinerpres.pdf<http://www.georgiaitp.org/carbon/PDF%20Files/CSteinerpres.pdf> 

  I suspect as time goes on and we learn more about the properties of terra preta we'll be able to refine and optimize it applications. What I think is news worthy here is that the gains possible from the use of biochar are much much more than just marginal. That leaves a lot of room for a lot of people to work with and utilize it in many creative ways.

  Jim.



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