Transcript Slide 1

Terra
Preta
de
Indio
Carbon
“darkSoil
earth”
Mystery
of the Amazon
Charcoal
Amazon
Basin,
Brazil
How did the native
Amazon
tribes
create these
Soil Minerals
(Portuguese)
reduced carbon
remarkably fertile and productive
soils?
1867:
Ballard
S.
Dunn,
Confederate
exile
Local
farmers
prize
terra
preta
High
Carbon
(SOM)
content
Conservation Grassland
Terra Preta
•updug
up Home
and sold
potting soil
book:
Brazil:
for as
Southerners
Ferralsol
to
9%
Minnesota
•compared
yields
up
to three
fold
asdark
great
as
lauds
high fertility
of.5%
Amazon
soil
with
in other
soils
How have these remarkablesometimes
soils
sustained
surrounding
infertile
tropical soils
over
20% their
sustained
fertility
in intensive use
tocenturies?
twoHerbert
meters
deep
1879:
explorer
Smith
fertility and productivity
for •one
five
tales of Amazon in Scribner's Monthly:
Small Patches
“extraordinary
fecundity
of (50
cane
fields…
Age:
800-4000
years
• average:
20
hectares
acres)
What can we learn from these
remarkable
to
dating
(charcoal)
“stalks
tenhectares
feet high…
big
as a
wrist…
•radio-carbon
350
(865soils
acres)
reported
research:
6000
years
near settlements
& in
onAmazon…
bluffs
"rich•recent
‘terra
preta’…
best
sustain soil fertility and productivity
today?
pottery
sherds
“fine,• embedded
dark loam…
often two
feet thick"
•
animal
&
fish
bones,
cultural
debris
High
nutrient
content
1966: Wim Sombroek (Dutch;1944-2003)
Can this method to create
tropical
provide
Calcium
&soils
Phosphorus
Made
from
Ferralsol
or Acrisol
published
his
book:
Amazon
Soils
Nitrogen
predominant
soils
inpreta
Amazon
first •scientific
study
of
terra
insights to improve temperate
climate
soils?
Cation
Exchange
Capacity
(CEC)
• acidic, notoriously infertile
1992: Sombroek
publishes his first book
• poor nutrient
capacity
on terracarbon
preta for in
carbon
Can this method to sequester
soilsequestration
help
High
Microbial
activity
Aerial
Surveys
2002:
Sombroek
forms
Terra Preta Nova
us reverse global warming
and
climate
change?
reef”
• up
toon
10%
of total
land area
to“microbial
use
char
farms
as a carbon
sink
nitrogenous
bacteria
fixing)
• able to feed
5-10 (nitrogen
million people
click
2007: first international biochar conference
to continue
Terra Preta
Increased
is biochar
a Fertility
nutrient?
• higher
Phosphorus
& Calcium
In normal
soil, biochar
breaks
down very slowly
• higher
Nitrogen
(oxidation,weathering
& digestion)
• –increased
nutrient
availability
over centuries,
rather
than months
• lower acidity
Biochar
isn’t consumed by soil life
• higher pH buffering
•Biochar
water retention
freshly made is sterile,
• physical
structure
with no
biological activity
• biological– habitat
(microflora & fauna)
no microbes
Adding only biochar to soil
retards plant growth
for up to two years
Fertilizers must be added
with biochar
terra preta
Biochar is a sponge
acrisol
toAmazon
hold water
& nutrients,
typical
soil
infertile
and a substrate
to provide habitat & housing
for microbes
biochar
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Terra Preta
Global Research
2001
biochar benefits
cation exchange capacity increased (Glaser)
water-holding capacity 18% increase (Glaser)
biomass growth 266% increase (Steiner 2nd year)
324% increase (Kishimoto & Sugiura)
plant nitrogen uptake doubled (Steiner)
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farm chemical runoff reduced (Yelverton)
Terra Preta
Research
t/ha
3-Year Field Trials
1.6
1.4
1.2
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
Rice & Sorghum
with charcoal
366%
without charcoal
267%
881%
Biomass
Yield
Total
Christoph Steiner1; W. G. Teixeira2; Johannes Lehmann3; W. Zech1
1 Institute of Soil Science, Univ. of Bayreuth, Germany 2 Embrapa Amazonia Ocidental, Manaus, Brazil
3 Dept of Crop and Soil Sciences, Cornell Univ., USA
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Terra Preta
Research
Bark Biochar & Fertilizer
biochar
+
NPK
biochar
+
NPK
NPK
control
control
NPK
Effect of bark biochar and fertilizer
on plant growth and soil properties
in south Sumatra
click
Yamato 2004 unpublished
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