[Terrapreta] Interesting article

[Kevin Chisholm]

Dear Folke

My personal annoyance was with the article describing the content of the 
Scientific paper, and not with the Scientific Paper, which I haven't 
seen yet either.

Reading between the lines of the article, one could guess at the general 
content of the Paper, but the article was presented in a shallow, 
sensationalist manner that would likely leave with the uninitiated 
reader with the impression that charcoal in soil was "a bad thing."

Best wishes,

Kevin

 
folke Günther wrote:
>
> I haven't received the pdf yet, but since there as been quite a 
> discussion,I will go through the background. When I have got the pdf, 
> I will go through it and give some more details.
> The basic is this:
>
>    1. *Burying charcoal in the soil always sequesters carbon (carbon
>       dioxide) from the atmosphere*
>           * This is true disregarding the route this charcoal may have
>             taken to the soil. I.e. even if the 'footprint' of this
>             special  charcoal is larger than its actual content of
>             coal (say that it is flown around the world), burying the
>             charcoal mean that this certain amount is eliminated fro
>             the atmosphere.
>           *  I.e. If you burn it, it will return to the atmosphere, If
>             you bury it, it will stay in the soil for thousands of years
>    2. *Charcoal /increase /soil metabolism.*
>           * This may not come as a surprise to any of the members of
>             this list.The reasons for that, and its effects, have been
>             discussed, and easily observed, for a long time.
>    3. *If you mix litter and charcoal, the litter will /decompose
>       faster/ than if it is not mixed with charcoal.*
>           * This was confirmed by the study. A large part (25% i the
>             first two years) of the litter was metabolised by the
>             microorganisms. I do not know if a simultaneous increase
>             of the plants living in, on or near the bags was observed.
>             One could expect  that.
>    4. *In bags with only litter, some metabolism would be observed,
>       although smaller than in the litter mixed with charcoal.*
>           * This is perfectly normal. 
>    5. *Thus, the presence of charcoal increase the rate of litter
>       decomposition.*
>           * Why am I not surprised?
>           * Jumping to the conclusion, however, that the presence of
>             charcoal in the soil would be offset by the increased
>             metabolism of litter, is wrong. After a century or two,
>             /all the litter would be expected to be metabolised,/
>             /charcoal or not/.
>    6. Therefore, the sequestration effect of charcoal is */_not
>       _/*counteracted by increased soil metabolism, since the SOM
>       (Soil Organic Matter) is ephemeral in comparison to the
>       charcoal, and will decompose anyhow. However, the in increased
>       metabolism is reflected in a change in litter decomposition rate.
>
> It would be very interesting to have the real figures, since that 
> might allow a calculation of the metabolism increase. A friend 
> observed a surprisingly high increase in the decomposition of a small 
> compost heap when charcoal was added
>
> 2008/5/2 folke Günther <folkeg at gmail.com <mailto:folkeg at gmail.com>>:
>
> In the latest number of Sciene, (2 May), David Wardle, Marie-Charlotte 
> Nilsson och Olle Zackrisson delivers an article: "Fire-Derived 
> Charcoal Causes Loss of Forest Humus", where they claim that charcoal 
> particles remaining after fire increase the microbial activity so they 
> break down humic particles at a rate that counteracts the carbon 
> sequestration effect of the carbon.
> I haven't read the article myself, but I am interested in he content. 
> I asked David Warle for a pdf.
>
> FG
>
> -- 
> ----------------------------------------
> Folke Günther
> Kollegievägen 19
> 224 73 Lund
> Sweden
> Phone: +46 (0)46 141429
> Cell: +46 (0)709 710306
> URL: http://www.holon.se/folke
> BLOG: http://folkegunther.blogspot.com/
>
>
>
>
> -- 
> ----------------------------------------
> Folke Günther
> Kollegievägen 19
> 224 73 Lund
> Sweden
> Phone: +46 (0)46 141429
> Cell: +46 (0)709 710306
> URL: http://www.holon.se/folke
> BLOG: http://folkegunther.blogspot.com/
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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