[Terrapreta] if yer not forest...

[Larry Williams]

Within David Yarrow (Sep 23, 2007, at 10:47 PM) post, he wrote:
"in recent discussions (debates?) about forests and carbon,  a  
fundamental fatal error is consistently made to reduce forests to  
trees.  a forest is a community,  within which trees form the  
superstructures of the habitat,  and are the senior community  
members.  but the forest is habitat for some of the most complex  
agregations of species on earth.  only the seas consistently rate a  
higher level of biodiversity".

It is, in my humble experience as a landscaper gardener, to question  
the data* used to establish the quantities of carbon found in  
forests. Especially if the studies (study?) were completed in the  
later part of the 1900's. With the exclusion of 1620 graph of North  
American landscapes, from David's post, our discussion of biological  
carbon sinks and the daily and annual CO2 transfers within a tree is  
misrepresenting the larger context of a forest and, specifically, the  
influence of water to facilitate the holding of carbon in the soil.

Here are two references, not specific scientific papers, that relate  
to the culmination of organic sinks:
1) "Water, a natural history" by Alice Outwater.  Alice Outwater  
outlines the significant animals that help purify water which  
maintains carbon in the soil and in organic sinks,
2) "Natural Dams"  @  http://www.naturaldam.com/ . What you may find  
of interest is the stepped topography of a stream system inhabited by  
beaver (Castor canadensis). Also note the extant of the historic  
range of the beavers.

We can focus on the process that created Terra Preta and apply that  
information to forest and arable lands. We also need water for those  
lands. The animals mentioned in Outwater's book are an important part  
of productive landscapes. It is my understanding that the canopy  
cover of a specific piece of land determines the biology below it.  
What biology maintains Terra Preta soils? ...that from a tropical  
forest, the edge of a tropical forest or from cleared land? What were  
the interactions between plant, animal, human, charcoal and water in  
Terra Preta soils?-------Larry





* @ September 23,  2007 11:50:09 AM PDT, Barry Sean:
"I referred a Table displayed in a document,  'The Encyclopedia of  
Energy' ...,"

TABLE II, Estimated Distribution of World's Biomass Carbon,
Forests            Savanna and grasslands    Swamp and marsh     
Remaining terrestrial    Marine, Area (10^6  
km2),                            48.5

24.0                            2.0                             
74.5                        361, Percentage             
9.5                 4.7                              
0.4                            14.6                        70.8, Net  
C production (Gt/year),                            33.26               
8.51                           2.70                            
8.40                        24.62, Percentage             
42.9               11.0                             
3.5                            10.8                        31.8,  
Standing C (Gt),                            744                    
33.5                                  14.0                            
37.5                        4.5, Percentage             
89.3                 4.0                              
1.7                            4.5                         0.5, Note.  
Adapted from Table 2.2 in Klass,  D. L. (1998). ''Biomass for  
Renewable Energy,  Fuels,  and Chemicals.'' Academic Press,  San,  
Diego,  CA.,

See the label for the numbers in the second set of rows?  "Net C  
production (Gt/year)"  and "Percentage (of total)"., Net C in Gt/year  
means AFTER decomposition is taken into account.  It is a measure how  
much more Carbon is in a particular place one year later.
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