[Terrapreta] Pure Organics Vs. Biological Agriculture

[Jon C. Frank]

Sean,

You are speaking many things way outside your area of expertise and it
shows.

All healthy soils will respire CO2.  To increase the the health of soil
means an increase in the amount of microbial activity.  Microbial activity
releases CO2 gas. Period.  The key is to recapture it with growing plants
before the gas is mixed into the air.  What you fail to see is that at the
same time soils are increasing the release of CO2 it is also increasing the
amount of carbon storage in soil.

For your information CO2 is heavier than air and yes it many times
accumulates on the surface during the nighttime before being sucked up by
plants when the sun hits them.  All it takes to confirm this is a CO2 meter
with a graphing feature.

Check out this quote from your favorite reference:

At standard temperature and pressure, the density of carbon dioxide is
around 1.98 kg/m³, about 1.5 times that of air.

The reason why atmospheric CO2 levels are increasing even though CO2
increases plant growth is that the industrial model of farming basically
burns up carbon stores in the soil and sends them into the air.  The
industrial model also creates a soil situation that does not have proper
remineralization.

The key for plants to utilize large amounts of CO2 is soil remineralization
and excellent levels of available calcium.  Industrialized acres generally
do not have these attributes and so do not adequately utilize the increased
levels of CO2.  This is the gist of the concept of soil remineralization as
explained at:
http://www.remineralize.org/.

SKB>Increasing CO2 in the atmosphere by making soils release more DOES NOT
increase plant growth!

Your wrong Sean.  All you need to do to confirm this is check out the
greenhouse industry.  They use CO2 generators in order to greatly increase
yield.  It works.  Low CO2 levels limit plant yield.
Here is what wiki has to say:
Plants require carbon dioxide to conduct photosynthesis, and greenhouses may
enrich their atmospheres with additional CO2 to boost plant growth.


Jon
  -----Original Message-----
  From: Sean K. Barry [mailto:sean.barry at juno.com]
  Sent: Wednesday, September 19, 2007 6:45 PM
  To: Terrapreta; Jon C. Frank; Sean K. Barry
  Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] Pure Organics Vs. Biological Agriculture


  Hi Jon,

  You say,

  Our goal in restoring soil is to INCREASE CO2 release, and then re-capture
it with the plants growing on the soil.  This is explained more at:
  http://www.highbrixgardens.com/restore/healthy_soil.html

  This is not my goal.  This is a very simplistic view and I think it is
dead wrong!

  Increasing CO2 release alone does not increase plant growth.   The rate of
sugar production from photosynthesis is the rate of a reaction which occurs
in growing plants.  It is affected by carbon dioxide concentration, light
intensity, the availability of water and certain nutrients (e.g. phosphorus
and nitrogen are important atomic components of the adenosine diphosphate -
ADP and adenosine triphosphate - ATP molecules)), AND temperature.  An
increase in the rate of reaction requires an increase in all of them.

  Photosynthesis is (very basically)

      6(CO2) + 6(H2O) + light photons => C6H12O6 + 6(O2)

  Plants convert light energy into chemical energy.  Increasing one of the
reactants (CO2), alone, will not increase the rate of photosynthetic output.
The reaction does not occur in the dark, or at temperatures without liquid
water.

  Photosynthesis is actually a very complex reaction, involving other
molecules; like nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate - NADP
(C21H29N7O17P3), reduced NADP - NADPH, and adenosine triphosphate - ATP
(C10H16N5O13P3).

  The rate of the reaction will increase ONLY if all of the required input
reactants and the amounts of supporting molecular catalysts are increased
proportionately.  Since when does increasing the CO2 concentration in the
air around growing plants increase the amounts of; water, nitrogen,
phosphorus, ADP, ATP, or SUNLIGHT, which would ALL need to be increased to
raise the rate of photosynthetic output?!

  Does lighter than air CO2, which could be released from soil at night
stick around down near the leaves of the plants until sunrise?!

  Increasing CO2 in the atmosphere by making soils release more DOES NOT
increase plant growth!  It would only increase the GHG effect of higher
atmospheric CO2 concentrations and exacerbate the consequent Global Climate
Change problems.

  I challenge you to find ANYONE who has ever published a peer reviewed
article in ANY scientific journal, which reports ANY indication that
increased atmospheric CO2 levels alone will promote the bigger or faster
growth of any plants.  I do not believe this is possible.
  You will not find any such articles.  I believe that ANYONE with a learned
experience in high school chemistry alone could argue effectively against
any such proposal, Jon.


  Regards,

  SKB
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