[Terrapreta] it's the soil

[David Yarrow]

two reasons why some tropical soils don't make good carbon sinks:

1)  elevated temperature and humidity 365 days a year increase the total rate of decay by fungi and other decompers.

2)  the soils are already exhausted of primary minerals, and thus much more infertile and sterile.

the second factor is much more significant than the first.  in most situations, mineral supply has the greater influence on botanical processes.  the more primary minerals present in soil and the soil food web, the greater the rates and balance of growth and fixation.  as primary minerals become used, leached or otherwise unavailable, the growth becomes slower and decay becomes faster.

the reverse tends to be true.  the general rule is whenever fungus, infection and decay dominates, bring in more minerals.  alkayze or die.  well, alkalyze or rot.

but beware generalizations.  for one, you can get too alkaline.

at any rate, the fundamental reality behind most ecosystem viability, vigor and complexity is soil quality, or fertility -- the supplies of primary minerals.  the most weak and exhausted the soil's supply of primary minerals, the weaker and unstable the ecology becomes.  thus, my second mission is to restore the earth by renewing minerals and trace elements so that all life can flourish again.

and one virtue of terra preta biochar soil strategy that isn't discussed enough is that the process retains most of the minerals and trace elements in the char to be returned to the soil in a form that conserves them in place rather than releasing them for rapid solution and leaching.

David Yarrow
"If yer not forest, yer against us."
Turtle EyeLand Sanctuary
44 Gilligan Road, East Greenbush, NY 12061
dyarrow at nycap.rr.com
www.championtrees.org
www.OnondagaLakePeaceFestival.org
www.citizenre.com/dyarrow/
www.farmandfood.org
www.SeaAgri.com
 
"Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, 
if one only remembers to turn on the light."  
-Albus Dumbledore
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: lou gold 
  To: Brian Hans 
  Cc: Terrapreta at bioenergylists.org 
  Sent: Sunday, September 23, 2007 5:55 PM
  Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] CO2 rising


  Hi Brian, et al,

  I think that lots of things "don't add up" because the picture is oversimplified -- too linear, too static, too locked into location. I suspect that it would take some very complex modeling to begin to grasp what's going on. 

  Let me offer an example: tropical soils don't have much accumulated "stuff" (carbon, etc) because of leaching into the water which deposits the "stuff" elsewhere and elsewhere may indeed be a more effective sink -- a swamp, an estuary, or the ocean. So, the location where the carbon is retrieved from the atmosphere may not be the location where it is stored. Terra Preta in Amazonia altered this in particular managed places, bringing the locations of retrieval and storage closer together and leaving us something to measure. I think that their agriculture both increased carbon retrieval and localized its storage. But have no idea how to approximate the global picture of cumulative impacts on land, air and water. 

  OK, it's complex. So I end with a plea for humility. We don't know much other than when we remove carbon from longer-term storage (wood) or ancient storage (fossil fuel) we dramatically increase the amount in the air. Growing fuel and sequestering waste as char is but a step toward changing this picture. I believe it's an important step. 
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