[Terrapreta] where I've come from

[mariska evelein]

Dear Andrew and list

With looking at, I mean gathering all the information that is available.

I just realised that I jumped into the list asking difficult questions without introducing myself.
I'm a student, with an Earth science Bsc majoring on Soil science (from Wageningen University in the Netherlands), and currently doing an Msc in environmental science in the UK. 
After having moved away from the soil science to study wider
environmental problems, I am surprised and pleased
that this has led me back to finding solutions in the soil again. 
I'm writing my Msc thesis on 'the potential for biochar carbon sequestration in Wales', but I'm mostly relying on secondary research. My main primary research has been gathering all the information on available waste in Wales, forestry production and predictions, set-aside land etc and predicting the biochar that can be produced from this. On top of this, I've stumbled across questions like this, which I don't have the means to answer myself (conduct any experiments) at the moment, but I would like to put forward a balanced view in my thesis and possibly work on doing more research in the future.

Because I'm looking at large scale charcoal production for carbon sequestration, I think it is important to include all environmental aspects (pollution from the production, energy use) and how long we expect this charcoal to stay in the soil (from current scientific understanding). My frustration with this was that pretty much every article said that charcoal was inert and would stay in the soil for centuries or millennia, but following the references didn't lead to any more evidence. I understand as a soil scientist the basic principles about this, and the difficulties in proving this, but with my curious mind I was hoping to find a more satisfying answer, hence my question to the list a few days ago.

I'm fascinated about this topic (as I'm sure you and most other people on this list are too) and I realise after reading pretty much every single article available on biochar and charcoal production that the real answers now have to come from people who are working in the field and doing the experiments.

So I hope that while I'm unable to do the 'real work' you don't mind me picking your brain on my search to finding answers to my questions

Mariska

Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2007 12:00:15 -0500
To: mariska_evelein at hotmail.com
From: azimmer at ufl.edu
Subject: RE: [Terrapreta] charcoal degradation - uncertainties about   its half life





I dont think that we know enough to attach a number.  Ask me in 6
months.  But clearly some portion of
the char can remain in soil for centuries, really, even millions of
years.

Think of coal. That was organic matter that was deposited 400 million
years ago and was preserved by some mechanism.

And back to terra preta - that char has obviously stuck around for 1000
y.


When you say 'looking at' do you mean 'conducting experiments', or just
'interested in'?

Are you a scientist?  -Andy







At 10:07 AM 11/16/2007, you wrote:

Dear Andrew,

Thanks for the papers and comments. Has this understanding led you to
believe that the half life of charcoal in the environment is
significantly shorter (e.g. in the order of decades rather than
centuries?) than we currently think, or do these processes operate on
such a long time scale that it doesn't radically change from our
perspective? I am looking at the carbon sequestration potential of
biochar, and this aspect seems to me to be the crux of the problem that
might not have an answer to it yet...

thanks for your help

Mariska








Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2007 15:01:20 -0500


To: mariska_evelein at hotmail.com; terrapreta at bioenergylists.org


From: azimmer at ufl.edu


Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] charcoal degradation - uncertainties about
its half life





Mariska - It is generally assumed that charcoal (black carbon) is not
very biodegradable because of its chemical composition (highly aromatic,
with relatively little nitrogen, etc) and simply because it remains in
the soil for long periods of time.  However, recent work (papers
attached) has shown that microbes can indeed respire and abiotic
reactions can breakdown this material to at least some extent, especially
when more labile organic matter is also added (so called 'priming'
effect).  In fact, my laboratory has found the same and is currently
working on defining the properties of biochar and its remineralization
rates better.  -AZ





At 01:21 PM 11/15/2007, mariska evelein wrote:



Hello List



A problem I stumbled across today is the half life of charcoal in the
environment.



No one seems to have rigorous scientific proof that charcoal is
inert, but we are all assuming it is.



According to the attached peer reviewed article (new directions in
black carbon organic geochemistry, masiello, 2004) there are some serious
gaps in how much black carbon is produced yearly and how much of it we
find in the environment, suggesting there is either a problem with our
scientific experiments, or there are other processes that cause a black
carbon loss that we haven't found out about yet. Even a thousand year
life span can't explain the carbon quantities.



Does the fact that we find charcoal in our ancient soils mean that
this represents all the charcoal that was produced at that time? How do
we know that we are not only finding a fraction of what was once
there?



I would really like to believe that most the charcoal we put in our
soils will stay there indefinately, but am struggling to do so until I
find some peer reviewed evidence that proofs this.



Can anybody provide me with this?



Mariska






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___________________________________________
 
Andrew R.
Zimmerman, PhD




Assistant Professor     
Department of Geological Sciences 
241 Williamson Hall 
P.O. Box 112120 
University of Florida 
Gainesville, FL 32611 
Office: (352) 392-0070 
Fax: (352) 392-9294 
azimmer at ufl.edu 


www.clas.ufl.edu/users/azimmer/index.html



"The state of disequilibrium is one from which, in
principle at least, it should be possible to extract some
energy...." 
        
        
        -J.E. Lovelock,
Gaia 
        




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