Ok, so you’ve got your Terra Preta. It’s basically Champion the Wonder Soil. People are talking about it as a form of carbon sequestration, where sequestration means taking the carbon out of the endless cycle of solid carbon to gaseous carbon and back again. The other methods of sequestration include pumping it down into the oil and gas bearing rocks which have recently been emptied by drilling. That method however doesn’t have the advantage of building soils. It’s taking a resource that is the basis of organic life and injecting into rocks where no organic life exists. That’s a bit of a waste to my mind.
But other thoughts..
Ten years ago if you had asked scientists what it was that held soil together they would have have said humus. Now this is not the delicious Turkish dip made from chickpeas, but rather a substance derived from humic acid. It’s fairly complex stuff that can eventually turn into peat etc. Up until recently scientists thought that humus was what held soil together, which seemed to have encouraged them to think of soil as a chemical soup. Soil chemistry is huge, so much so that soil biology is starved of sunlight. Now however it’s possible that a forest giant has tumbled to the ground leaving a space in the canopy. There’s been a bit of a storm and that storm was not Katrina but rather Glomalin.
Glomalin is the soil’s glue, without it you would just have a beach or the Oklahoma dust bowl (that sounds a bit like A Martha Stewart reality program) . Given that it’s so important you would think they would have discovered it before. Well there’s a good reason why they didn’t. This stuff is strong. Scientists had to drown it in acid and subject it to heat just to isolate it enough to get a good look at it. The fact that its so incredibly strong is just one amazing thing about it. The other is where it comes from. It comes from fungus. Soil chemistry just took one in the head.
Here’s what the wikipedia says about it. It’s short and to the point.
Glomalin is a glycoprotein produced abundantly on hyphae and spores of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in soil and in roots.
As a glycoprotein, glomalin stores carbon in both its protein and carbohydrate (glucose or sugar) subunits. It permeates organic matter, binding it to silt, sand, and clay particles. Not only does glomalin contain 30 to 40 percent carbon, but it also forms clumps of soil granules called aggregates. These add structure to soil, and keep other stored soil carbon from escaping.
Glomalin is causing a complete reexamination of what makes up soil organic matter. It is increasingly being included in studies of carbon storage and soil quality.
Now what I wrote about terra preta tells us that it’s basically an organic carbon matrix inhabited by fungi. Now we see that the glue which holds soil together is produced by fungi in cooperation with plants. Now this stuff is produced on the microscopic thread like tendrils that fungi weaves through the soil so by definition it’s got to be connected to the fungal matrix.
Is it just me or does this seem like the soil version of Lucas’ Force? Keep in mind when I say that I’m taking the popular culture slant on what is basically Taoism.
What interests me about all of this is the potential of the kind of biological matrix to reclaim nutrients that would otherwise wash right off fields and out of barn stalls straight into our rivers. Would it be possible to grow soil this way instead of river algae? If it is then there may be a way to take carbon out of our atmosphere, build soil, clean up agriculture and restore oxygen to our bodies of water by using nothing more than some charred wood and some fungus spores. Seen in this way the terra preta glomalin idea could be seen as a a kind of Roald Dahl magical sponge taking the crap out of our world and converting it into gold. Now that would be alchemy.
Peter Donovan said,
August 20, 2007 at 11:16 pm
In most areas soil organic matter (including humus and glomalin) can be created cheaply and easily by good management that works WITH ecosystem processes rather than against it as most conventional land management techniques such as tillage, complete rest from grazing or animal impact, etc.
However, a soil additive fits our mental models or beliefs better. That’s why terra preta is more discussed than good grazing management, etc.
For an explanation of how soil can be part of an actual solution to global warming, see Allan Yeomans’ book PRIORITY ONE: TOGETHER WE CAN BEAT GLOBAL WARMING. http://www.biospheremedia.org
tokyobabylon said,
August 20, 2007 at 11:34 pm
Indeed Terra Preta has that ‘wow’ factor. People are far more blase about good management; the kind that you get from permaculture, forest gardens, natural farming etc
Sometime soon I’ll write about ZERI’s five kingdoms, EM farming and chicken tractors.
Sure Terra Preta is a wonderful idea, but it’s more wonderful if you can integrate it into a system. If that system uses nothing more than gravity, sunshine and biology to power it then the better we’ll all be the better for it.
On another note can anyone explain to me why so many good ideas are coming out of Australia. Clive Hamilton’s “Growth Fetish”, the Permaculture movement, The Natural Edge Project’s “The Natural Advantage of Nations”?
Erich J. Knight said,
August 21, 2007 at 1:40 am
I have contacted Dr. Wright , asking about the roll of her discovery of Glomalin to Terra Preta soils, alas……..I’ve gotten no replies.
Terra Preta is a fully DOABLE Energy /soil technology:
Time to Master the Carbon Cycle with Terra Preta Soils
Man has been controlling the carbon cycle , and there for the weather, since the invention of agriculture, all be it was as unintentional, as our current airliner contrails are in affecting global dimming. This unintentional warm stability in climate has over 10,000 years, allowed us to develop to the point that now we know what we did,………… and that now……… we are over doing it.
The prehistoric and historic records gives a logical thrust for soil carbon sequestration.
I wonder what the soil biome carbon concentration was REALLY like before the cutting and burning of the world’s virgin forest, my guess is that now we see a severely diminished community, and that only very recent Ag practices like no-till and reforestation have started to help rebuild it. It makes implementing Terra Preta soil technology like an act of penitence, a returning of the misplaced carbon to where it belongs.
Energy, the carbon cycle and greenhouse gas management
http://www.computare.org/Support%20documents/Fora%20Input/CCC2006/Energy%20Paper%2006_05.htm
On the Scale of CO2 remediation:
It is my understanding that atmospheric CO2 stands at 379 PPM, to stabilize the climate we need to reduce it to 350 PPM by the removal of 230 Billion tons.
The best estimates I’ve found are that the total loss of forest and soil carbon (combined
pre-industrial and industrial) has been about 200-240 billion tons. Of
that, the soils are estimated to account for about 1/3, and the vegetation
the other 2/3.
Since man controls 24 billion tons in his agriculture then it seems we have plenty to work with in sequestering our fossil fuel co2 emissions as charcoal.
As Dr. Lehmann at Cornell points out, “Closed-Loop Pyrolysis systems such as Dr. Danny Day’s are the only way to make a fuel that is actually carbon negative”. and that ” a strategy combining biochar with biofuels could ultimately offset 9.5 billion tons of carbon per year-an amount equal to the total current fossil fuel emissions! ”
Terra Preta Soils Technology: Carbon Negative Bio fuels, massive Carbon sequestration and 3X Fertility Too
The integrated energy strategy offered by Charcoal based Terra Preta Soil technology may
provide the only path to sustain our agricultural and fossil fueled power
structure without climate degradation, other than nuclear power.
The economics look good, and truly great if we had CO2 cap & trade in place:
I have heard that National Geographic is preparing a big Terra Preta (TP) article.
SCIAM Article May 15 07
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=5670236C-E7F2-99DF-3E2163B9FB144E40
Nature article: Putting the carbon back Black is the new green:
http://bestenergies.com/downloads/naturemag_200604.pdf
Here’s the Cornell page for an over view:
http://www.css.cornell.edu/faculty/lehmann/biochar/Biochar_home.htm
This Earth Science Forum thread on these soils contains further links, and has been viewed by 17,000 folks. ( I post everything I find on Amazon Dark Soils, ADS here):
http://forums.hypography.com/earth-science/3451-terra-preta.html
If you have any other questions please feel free to call me or visit the TP website I’ve been drafted to co-administer.
http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/?q=node
It has been immensely gratifying to see all the major players join the mail list , Cornell folks, T. Beer of Kings Ford Charcoal (Clorox), Novozyne the M-Roots guys(fungus), chemical engineers, Dr. Danny Day of EPRIDA , Dr. Antal of U. of H., Virginia Tech folks and probably many others who’s back round I don’t know have joined.
All the Bio-Char Companies and equipment manufactures I’ve found:
Carbon Diversion
http://www.carbondiversion.com/ ( Clorox / Kingsford Charcoal just licensed this Plasma Carbonization process )
Eprida: Sustainable Solutions for Global Concerns
http://www.eprida.com/home/index.php4
BEST Pyrolysis, Inc. | Slow Pyrolysis – Biomass – Clean Energy – Renewable Energy
http://www.bestenergies.com/companies/bestpyrolysis.html
Dynamotive Energy Systems | The Evolution of Energy
http://www.dynamotive.com/
Ensyn – Environmentally Friendly Energy and Chemicals
http://www.ensyn.com/who/ensyn.htm
Agri-Therm, developing bio oils from agricultural waste
http://www.agri-therm.com/
Advanced BioRefinery Inc.
http://www.advbiorefineryinc.ca/
Technology Review: Turning Slash into Cash
http://www.technologyreview.com/Energy/17298/
The International Agrichar Initiative (IAI) conference held at Terrigal, NSW, Australia in 2007. http://iaiconference.org/home.html
.
If pre-Columbian Indians could produce these soils up to 6 feet deep over 20% of the Amazon basin it seems that our energy and agricultural industries could also product them at scale.
Harnessing the work of this vast number of microbes and fungi changes the whole equation of energy return over energy input (EROEI) for food and Bio fuels. I see this as the only sustainable agricultural strategy if we no longer have cheap fossil fuels for fertilizer.
We need this super community of wee beasties to work in concert with us by populating them into their proper Soil horizon Carbon Condos.
I feel Terra Preta soil technology is the greatest of Ironies.
That is: an invention of pre-Columbian American culture, destroyed by western disease, may well be the savior of industrial western society.
Erich J. Knight
Shenandoah Gardens
E-mail: shengar at aol.com
(540) 289-9750
Erich J. Knight said,
October 16, 2007 at 2:52 am
I thought the current news and links on Terra Preta (TP)soils and closed-loop pyrolysis would interest you.
SCIAM Article May 15 07;
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=5670236C-E7F2-99DF-3E2163B9FB144E40
After many years of reviewing solutions to anthropogenic global warming (AGW) I believe this technology can manage Carbon for the greatest collective benefit at the lowest economic price, on vast scales. It just needs to be seen by ethical globally minded companies.
Could you please consider looking for a champion for this orphaned Terra Preta Carbon Soil Technology.
The main hurtle now is to change the current perspective held by the IPCC that the soil carbon cycle is a wash, to one in which soil can be used as a massive and ubiquitous Carbon sink via Charcoal. Below are the first concrete steps in that direction;
S.1884 – The Salazar Harvesting Energy Act of 2007
A Summary of Biochar Provisions in S.1884:
Carbon-Negative Biomass Energy and Soil Quality Initiative
for the 2007 Farm Bill
http://www.biochar-international.org/newinformationevents/newlegislation.html
CALL your repps and Senator in Support of S. 1884…….NOW!!
Tackling Climate Change in the U.S.
Potential Carbon Emissions Reductions from Biomass by 2030by Ralph P. Overend, Ph.D. and Anelia Milbrandt
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
http://www.ases.org/climatechange/toc/07_biomass.pdf
The organization 25×25 (see 25x’25 – Home) released it’s (first-ever, 55-page )”Action Plan” ; see; http://www.25×25.org/storage/25×25/documents/IP%20Documents/ActionPlanFinalWEB_04-19-07.pdf
On page 29 , as one of four foci for recommended RD&D, the plan lists: “The development of biochar, animal agriculture residues and other non-fossil fuel based fertilizers, toward the end of integrating energy production with enhanced soil quality and carbon sequestration.”
and on p 32, recommended as part of an expanded database aspect of infrastructure: “Information on the application of carbon as fertilizer and existing carbon credit trading systems.”
I feel 25×25 is now the premier US advocacy organization for all forms of renewable energy, but way out in front on biomass topics.
There are 24 billion tons of carbon controlled by man in his agriculture and waste stream, all that farm & cellulose waste which is now dumped to rot or digested or combusted and ultimately returned to the atmosphere as GHG should be returned to the Soil.
Even with all the big corporations coming to the GHG negotiation table, like Exxon, Alcoa, .etc, we still need to keep watch as the Democrats/Enviromentalist try to influence how carbon management is legislated in the USA. Carbon must have a fair price, that fair price and the changes in the view of how the soil carbon cycle now can be used as a massive sink verses it now being viewed as a wash, will be of particular value to farmers and a global cool breath of fresh air for us all.
If you have any other questions please feel free to call me or visit the TP web site I’ve been drafted to co-administer. http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/?q=node
It has been immensely gratifying to see all the major players join the mail list , Cornell folks, T. Beer of Kings Ford Charcoal (Clorox), Novozyne the M-Roots guys(fungus), chemical engineers, Dr. Danny Day of EPRIDA , Dr. Antal of U. of H., Virginia Tech folks and probably many others who’s back round I don’t know have joined.
Also Here is the Latest BIG Terra Preta Soil news;
The Honolulu Advertiser: “The nation’s leading manufacturer of charcoal has licensed a University of Hawai’i process for turning green waste into barbecue briquets.”
About a year ago I got Clorox interested in TP soils and Dr. Antal’s Plasma Carbonazation process.
See: http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007707280348
ConocoPhillips Establishes $22.5 Million Pyrolysis Program at Iowa State 04/10/07