[Terrapreta] More on nitrogen

[Ron Larson]

Terrapreta list members:

    1.  I have been trying to learn more about nitrogen and biochar, and have concluded that the best and most recent such scientific material seems to have been done by Dr. Lukas van Zweiten.  I was fortunate to attend his presentation before the IAI conference at his Wollongbar facility in northern NSW, Australia about a year ago - and was impressed by what I saw then.  I am more impressed now because I haven't found much else on the relationship between biochar and nitrogen.  I hope others can tell me there are other researchers with similar results related to nitrogen.

  2.     The most recent accounts I have seen of Lukas' work are at

http://www.beyondzeroemissions.org/2008/03/30/lukas-van-zwieten-nsw-dpi-biochar-agrichar-terra-preta-soil-trials-zero-carbon

http://podcast.beyondzeroemissions.org/08mar21-lukas-van-zwieten-biochar-nsw-dpi-beyondzero.mp3

    About half-way in the interview, Lukas says:
Then you can start looking at the benefits. As I said before the benefits include improved nutrient availability to plants, improved nutrient uptake, retention, and by retention I mean reduced leaching in particular of nitrates and reduced emissions of nitrous oxide. That's one of the key environmental benefits that we've found with some of the biochars in that we've had very, very significant reductions in nitrous oxide emissions from the soil; between five- and ten-fold reductions in nitrous oxide emissions.

  3.  Anyone able to put a dollar value on this magnitude of reduction?  (in terms equivalent to $20/tonne CO2)  If one could use half as much fertilizer (a guess), what is that value in $/hectare/yr   (average for corn production, say - but for any crop)?

   4.  In another part of the interview (not related to Nitrogen), Lukas says that corn yield was doubled with a biochar application of 10 t/ha.  We've seen this sort of statistic before, but Lukas reported this was due mostly to a jump from one ear per stalk to two.  First time I've seen that statistic.

    5.   This "beyondzeroemissions" web site (Victoria, Au) has some excellent other interviews - and many/most with a biochar theme.  (Jim Hansen, Tim Flannery were the most recognizable names).  This is a half hour weekly radio show with mostly telephone hook-ups.

    6.  Lukas' most telling comment for this list I thought was his lament about being unable to obtain sufficient biochar for the experiments they want to run (they have some experiments on sugarcane also).  He gives credit to BEST, but he needs lots more biochar.  We need to hear more on this list from those with char to sell (or those working on the production side).

Ron
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