[Terrapreta] forests vs. grasslands

[Brian Hans]

Well, thank you Sean. I'll take this as a complement. Comments amongst yours.
  

You've not tied into this, however, how you think Terra Preta can help the situation.  The situation I mean is the rising levels of GHG.  How do you propose that forming Terra Preta is going to help?  
   
  Well...as the north melts away its soil carbon sink into ATM CO2 and CH4, the earth will heat up. Then even more soil carbon gets eaten...more heat...more carbon into the ATM...more heat...vicious circle.  Terra preta can help this by locking ATM C away into the soil, we all understand this concept on the server. But Im afraid in the end, capitalism will win-out over environmentalism and we cook instead of doing the right thing by creating an economy based in sustainability (inwhich TP may be apart of). 
   
  You say there is a fall coming?  What do you mean "fall"?  
   
  I mean that humans arnt a proactive species, much more of a reactive species. I mean fall the way that Ehrlich means by fall when he talks about 'the Rivet Poppers'. http://isis.csuhayward.edu/alss/geography/mlee/envt2000/biodivf99.htm      At some point...the earth cannot sustain the human population and massive human disturbance takes place. 
   
   
  Past posts from you claim that increased CO2 levels should be a boon for plants.  Increased temperatures will promote decomposition, increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations, and that again helping plants grow even more.  Do you suspect growing seasons will lengthen in areas further north?  Can you show that soils can provide the nutrient inputs to sustain the promised growth that CO2 can bring?
   
  No I cannot show this empirically but just as life and plants eek out a living everywhere else on what seems like rock and sand... I would assume that the  'new north' will be exploited just as it was in the past. 
   
  You said it yourself, that CO2 is not the only limiting factor.  What happens with CO2 levels, do you think, and plant growth, when other limits come to force?
   
  Life growth is always based on Liebig's Law of the minimum. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liebig%27s_Law_of_the_Minimum   What is the bottleneck? In terrestrial plants, CO2 is typically a limiting factor at certain times of the day and certain times of the year. http://www.co2science.org/scripts/CO2ScienceB2C/articles/V9/N22/EDIT.jsp
  I quote from the paper' these findings suggest that elevated levels of atmospheric CO2 are acting as a driving force for increased radial growth of ponderosa pine, but that the overall influence of this effect may be enhanced, reduced or obviated by site-specific conditions'
  My guess (no data) is that there is way more PO4, N2, Cu, Mg, Mn, Fe, K2O...etc in the biosphere crust than life could utilize on the planet. Light is always #1. Water #2(on land) and CO2 is #3 with the rest of the inorganics bringing up the rear.  
   
  Here is a tough question?  One we beat the crap out of earlier this week and never really came to an answer.  When plants grow better in the increased atmospheric CO2 concentrations (and I do know that they can!), will the increased uptake of CO2 reduce the atmospheric concentrations?  
   
  Eventually. But as long as the equilibrium is being shifted by adding the stores of C more than the plants can uptake, plants will always be lagging. And frankly, only a light reading of the data suggests that C additions to the ATM isnt going down anytime soon. Sometimes the truth hurts. 
   
  If the CO2 concentrations reduce, will the plants not grow so much?  
   
  Yep, just as if they were starved for other limits. 
   
  Do you have a "full system"  analysis here?
   
  Nope. I would venture to say that no-one has a full system Gaia analysis. 
   
  From your analysis, have you formed a plan, which uses Terra Preta to remediate the problem of rising GHG concentrations?
   
  Its not a technical issues, its one of economics. At some point...will the earth get so hot that people value less ATM CO2? Or do they value their hairdryer more than they care about the cost of aircon and food? Im afraid that I dont see anyway that the human race will value ecology over life style in a sustainable fashion given the historical trends. This is not a fun position for an ecologist to be in but again...the truth hurts. The only way I see TP coming into the picture is if TP can prove an economic model to the farmer to want to do it. Or that TP becomes a 'waste stream that has enough economic value to ship it to the farmer fields', in essence, turning farms into waste dumps (likely the true source of TP de Indio Amazonian...we can discuss this later). Danny Day sorts of Biomass to energy (or other products) to char waste TP soil placement sorts of systems comes to mind. But in the end, Im afraid that my answer is much more bleak than the optimist inside me
 wants to be...  Its a shame when I have to rely on Joni Mitchell quote to explain capitalism in ecology " Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got Till it's gone. They paved paradise and put up a parking lot. "
   
  Brian Hans
   
  

  
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