Maximizing Carbon Sequestration in Terrestrial Agroecosystems
| 26-04-2024 20:30 | |
Into the Night ★★★★★(21757) |
sealover wrote: Climate cannot change. You still haven't defined 'climate change'. Buzzword fallacy. 'Climate change' is not a term in science. Science does not use meaningless buzzwords. Science is not a paper, textbook, course, credential, degree, university, government agency, website, pamphlet, licence, or any other sanctification. sealover wrote:You are describing yourself. sealover wrote: Buzzword fallacy. There is no such thing as 'biogeochemistry' except as a religious artifact. The Parrot Killer Debunked in my sig. - tmiddles Google keeps track of paranoid talk and i'm not on their list. I've been evaluated and certified. - keepit nuclear powered ships do not require nuclear fuel. - Swan While it is true that fossils do not burn it is also true that fossil fuels burn very well - Swan |
| 26-04-2024 23:06 | |
IBdaMann ★★★★★(14491) |
sealover wrote: Obviously, the information presented here will be "incomprehensible" to someone who never studied any science. Obviously someone who never studied any science will remain blissfully unaware that there is no information presented here. sealover wrote: There are plenty of threads dedicated to discussion of whether or not it is even theoretically possible to have climate change occurring before our eyes. There are no discussions involving undefined buzzwords. There are only chantings and virtue-signaling threads that are similarly devoid of any information. sealover wrote: The target audience for a thread such as this one are people who don't need to be convinced that the entire scientific community is probably right There is no audience who knows what compromises "the scientific community", i.e. just another undefined buzzword. sealover wrote: Scientists DO define terms in their communications when they are using a new one, or one that has multiple definitions and must be clarified in a new context. Scientists must always define their terms when speaking/discussing publicly. Those who do not define their terms when addressing the public are not scientists. Logic 101. sealover wrote: Even so, there is no need to explain that "denitrification" in a paper about soil or water is a completely different term than "denitrification" in a paper about stratospheric chemistry. Scientists are required to define all their terms in every paper. People who are not scientists don't necessarily understand this. sealover wrote: The absurd assertion that it is not possible to even begin discussion about anything related to climate change without first providing an "unambiguous definition" for the term... It is a requirement. No useful discussion can be had about the completely undefined. sealover wrote: And whether or not one refuses to believe there is a need to reduce concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, it is hard to argue that we should allow the content of organic carbon in soil to continue to decrease. It is a simple matter to argue that an undefined buzzword should be allowed to decrease, regardless of whether one strangely has a political position on atmospheric CO2. sealover wrote: Farmers, foresters, ranchers, and many others depend on the fertility benefits provided by soil organic carbon. Nope. Farmers, foresters, ranchers and many others depend only on the fertility of the soil, not the undefined buzzword of any soil. sealover wrote: Unless there is an INCREASE in additional soil carbon storage, there will be a net loss of soil organic carbon and the productivity that depends on it. This veracity of this statement depends on the definitions of the terms you have not defined. sealover wrote: Or just play word games and insist that there is no such thing as organic carbon. That depends entirely on how you define "organic carbon" ... when you aren't playing word games, of course. sealover wrote: Yes, this is a very "toxic" discussion site. ... when you make it such. sealover wrote: But search engines keep getting tricked into showing this website high on the list for people looking for a discussion site about climate change. Once people like you arrive, you become so enamored that you never leave. |
| RE: Trying to keep thread on topic27-04-2024 23:49 | |
| sealover★★★★☆ (1392) |
B. Adamczyk. 2024. Tannins and climate change: Are tannins able to stabilize carbon in the soil? Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. DOI: 10.1021/acs.jafc.4c00703 The author and I are quite familiar with each other's research. It was 35 years ago when I first became fully immersed in tannin (also known as polyphenol) research as a grad student at UC Berkeley. At that time, anti herbivore defense was presumed to be the sole adaptive value for plants to make tannins, despite little evidence that they are effective. Convoluted theories were created to explain why plant communities on highly infertile, acidic soils produced so much more tannin than plants on better soil, as somehow consistent with anti herbivore defense. At that time, nobody considered how tannin production could benefit the plants that produce them through their impact on carbon and nitrogen cycling. Tannins slow the decomposition of plant or soil organic matter they come into contact with. Tannins themselves are the substrate from which most soil humic acids are formed, having centuries long mean residence time in soil. It is highly gratifying to see this finally reach the point where the application to address climate change is being so explicitly identified in the title of a new paper. The following is not the abstract from the new paper. It is the first post of this thread. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- sealover wrote:[/quote][/quote] |
| 28-04-2024 01:42 | |
| IBdaMann★★★★★ (14491) |
sealover wrote: At that time, nobody considered how tannin production could benefit the plants that produce them through their impact on carbon and nitrogen cycling. How does a plant's impact on carbon and nitrogen cycling somehow benefit the plant? How is a plant somehow a benefactor of the manner in which it decomposes? sealover wrote: Tannins slow the decomposition of plant or soil organic matter they come into contact with. How does this help the plant get its genes into the next generation? sealover wrote: It is highly gratifying to see this finally reach the point where the application to address climate change is being so explicitly identified in the title of a new paper. How does the manner of a plant's decomposition address Climate Change? What even is Climate Change anyway? |
| 28-04-2024 12:23 | |
| sealover★★★★☆ (1392) |
[quote]sealover wrote: B. Adamczyk. 2024. Tannins and climate change: Are tannins able to stabilize carbon in the soil? Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. DOI: 10.1021/acs.jafc.4c00703 Until now, the only papers listed in this thread were authored by the thread author, or cited the thread author in 2023 or 2024. For now, it will continue with papers that cite the thread author earlier in 2023 or previous years. This paper, also by Dr. Adamczyk is from 2019. B. Adamczyk et al. 2019. Interactions between tannins and fungal necromass stabilizes fungal residues in boreal forest soils. New Phytologist. Volume 223, pages 16-21. This paper clarifies one of the many mechanisms through which tannins (aka polyphenols) stabilize carbon in soil. Fungal biomass is a major component of organic carbon input to soils. Tannins from plants interact with organic carbon compounds in dead fungal biomass (necromass) to slow decomposition and increase mean residence time of that organic carbon. Tannins are polydentate ligands, among other things, with multiple binding sites to attach to other organic carbon compounds. The tannin-carbohydrate complex or tannin-protein complex has its reactive sites occluded from enzymatic attack. This paper does NOT present anything about why this is beneficial to the plants that produce the tannins, but only how it brings about stabilization of carbon in the soil. Had they done so, they would have gotten into how this enables the plant to monopolize the nitrogen supply, among other benefits. Nitrogen tied up in protein tannin complexes is inaccessible to most soil organisms. Tannin rich species are virtually always associated with mycorrhizal fungi that are among the very few organisms capable of releasing nitrogen from protein tannin complexes. In a more fertile soil where bioavailable nitrogen is more abundant, plants don't need to put tannins in the soil to ensure access to this limiting nutrient. In the most extreme cases of tannin-rich vegetation, the benefits go beyond merely monopolizing the nitrogen supply. For example, equatorial rainforests on acid white sand soil employ tannins to actually build their own soil above the mineral soil. No plant could survive on such soil otherwise, as it is nothing but acidified quartz sand which is devoid of nutrients or nutrient retention capacity. Cation exchange capacity (CEC) for example, is what prevents nutrient cations such as calcium or magnesium from leaching out of the soil. Even in a highly fertile soil where the clay minerals provide CEC, typically about half of the total CEC arises from organic carbon compounds rather than clay minerals. On acid white sands, 100% of the CEC arises from organic carbon, which accumulates to high amounts as a direct result of plant tannins. |
| 28-04-2024 23:54 | |
| IBdaMann★★★★★ (14491) |
sealover wrote: This paper clarifies one of the many mechanisms through which tannins (aka polyphenols) stabilize carbon in soil. Is carbon otherwise unstable in soil? sealover wrote: Fungal biomass is a major component of organic carbon input to soils. I presume you mean to say that fungal biomass is a major component of unstable carbon input to soils. sealover wrote: Tannins from plants interact with organic carbon compounds in dead fungal biomass (necromass) to slow decomposition and increase mean residence time of that organic carbon. You never explained what "organic carbon" is supposed to be, and I'm not allowed to ask, right? Is all organic carbon unstable, or only that from fungal biomass? sealover wrote: Tannins are polydentate ligands, among other things, with multiple binding sites to attach to other organic carbon compounds. The tannin-carbohydrate complex or tannin-protein complex has its reactive sites occluded from enzymatic attack. Why should anyone care? You never explained. sealover wrote: This paper does NOT present anything about why this is beneficial to the plants that produce the tannins, ... then why was everybody speculating that the tannins were anti-herbivore deterrents? sealover wrote: ... but only how it brings about stabilization of carbon in the soil. ... because they strangely thought that carbon was unstable, right? sealover wrote: Nitrogen tied up in protein tannin complexes is inaccessible to most soil organisms. Tannin rich species are virtually always associated with mycorrhizal fungi that are among the very few organisms capable of releasing nitrogen from protein tannin complexes. Once again, you never explained why anyone should care. Jussayn. sealover wrote: In a more fertile soil where bioavailable nitrogen is more abundant, plants don't need to put tannins in the soil to ensure access to this limiting nutrient. I presume you meant "limited." But wait, if nitrogen is more abundant, it isn't limited. I presume you meant "otherwise limited resource", yes? sealover wrote: Even in a highly fertile soil where the clay minerals provide CEC, typically about half of the total CEC arises from organic carbon compounds rather than clay minerals. How is the CEC measured, and how do biogeochemicalulators determine how much is attributed to clay and how much is attributed to carbon compounds? sealover wrote: On acid white sands, 100% of the CEC arises from organic carbon, which accumulates to high amounts as a direct result of plant tannins. Might it be the acidic sand itself that is resistant to leaching? |
| 29-04-2024 00:26 | |
| Into the Night★★★★★ (21757) |
sealover wrote: Repetition (spamming). RAAA. The Parrot Killer Debunked in my sig. - tmiddles Google keeps track of paranoid talk and i'm not on their list. I've been evaluated and certified. - keepit nuclear powered ships do not require nuclear fuel. - Swan While it is true that fossils do not burn it is also true that fossil fuels burn very well - Swan |
| RE: Mycorrhizal fungi29-04-2024 15:26 | |
| sealover★★★★☆ (1392) |
Trying to stay on topic, this paper came out a little more than a month ago. K. Rains, C. Bledsoe, T. Kraus, and N. Wurzburger. 2024. Evidence that ericoid mycorrhizal shrubs can outcompete ectomycorrhizal trees for nitrogen in tannin-rich litter. Ecosphere volume 15 (still need page numbers). They didn't just cite, I used to work in the same lab with a few of them. I'm delighted that they published this. It is very difficult for soil organisms to get any nitrogen from protein tannin complexes. It requires extracellular enzymes produced at great energetic expense. The few organisms that can do this must be supplied with organic carbon from another organism. They are called mycorrhizal fungi, and they live in association with plant roots. This paper gets into the issue of competition between different kinds of mycorrhizal associations. Ericoid mycorrhiza are associated with ericaceous shrubs (heathlands). Ectomycorrhizal fungi are associated with many kinds of trees, including most conifer forests. Part of what they researched was whether or not they can access nitrogen from their competitor's litter. Multiple enzymes are involved with either fungal type. Ericoid mycorrhizal fungi turn out to be better at it than ectomycorrhizal fungi. But the competitive advantage is limited to the most nitrogen limited ecosystems. From the first sentence of the abstract: "Mycorrhizal associations of trees play a key role in ecosystem biogeochemistry.." Somebody forgot to explain to them that "biogeochemistry" is a meaningless buzzword. |
| 29-04-2024 21:10 | |
| Into the Night★★★★★ (21757) |
sealover wrote:Science is not a paper, moron. sealover wrote: It is a meaningless buzzword. The Parrot Killer Debunked in my sig. - tmiddles Google keeps track of paranoid talk and i'm not on their list. I've been evaluated and certified. - keepit nuclear powered ships do not require nuclear fuel. - Swan While it is true that fossils do not burn it is also true that fossil fuels burn very well - Swan |
| RE: thread topic02-05-2024 01:26 | |
| sealover★★★★☆ (1392) |
Nutrient cycling dynamics of natural ecosystems can be mimicked in cropping systems to maximize carbon sequestration into soil organic matter, and minimize emissions of nitrous oxide. Tannin (aka polyphenol) chemical ecology provides insights into biogeochemical mechanisms that regulate carbon and nitrogen cycling. The convergent evolution of tannin-rich plant communities has occurred on highly-infertile soils throughout the world. To acquire and conserve nitrogen, these plants allocate much of their organic carbon below ground to support symbiotic mycorrhizal fungi associated with their roots. Tannins in plant litter form recalcitrant complexes with protein, immobilizing this organic form of nitrogen and preventing mineralization. Mycorrhizal fungi produce enzymes that mobilize nitrogen from protein-tannin complexes, which is transferred directly to the root in organic nitrogen form. This short circuiting of the mineralization step in the nitrogen cycle prevents emission of nitrous oxide to the atmosphere, and prevents export of nitrate to groundwater or surface water. Allocation of photosynthate below ground to support mycorrhizal fungi also enhances sequestration of carbon into soil organic matter. Tannins inhibit the oxidation of ammonium in soil to nitrate by nitrifying bacteria. This minimizes nitrous oxide emission as a by product of microbial nitrate reduction. Nitrogen release from tannin-rich litter is predominantly in the form of dissolved organic nitrogen rather than ammonium or nitrate. Dissolved organic nitrogen adsorbs to soil organic matter, minimizing leaching loss of nitrogen and retaining it in slow release form. Tannins inhibit the decomposition of organic matter to substantially increase its mean residence in or above the soil. In the most extreme cases, equatorial rainforests form massive litter layers over acid white sand soils that are virtually devoid of nutrients or roots. One- or two-meters thick layers of litter in various stages of decomposition can accumulate above the mineral soil surface. This is despite warm, wet, well drained conditions that favor rapid decomposition. Exceptionally high tannin content in the vegetation of these forests enables them to create an enduring layer of organic matter above the soil surface, where virtually all the root growth and nutrient cycling occurs with high efficiency, and negligible losses. Tannins themselves are the dominant substrate that transforms into soil humic acids. Humic acids enhance soil fertility in many ways, and their mean residence time in soil can be many centuries long. Tannins can comprise more than half the dry weight in foliage of tannin-rich species, and much of this represents sequestered carbon that will remain for a long time as stable soil organic matter. We may not want to create thick litter layers above the topsoil in all our croplands. But polyphenol biogeochemistry can still be applied to increase carbon sequestration and decrease nitrous oxide emission. For example, tannin-rich organic matter can be combined with more rapidly decomposable crop residues or manure to slow decomposition and immobilize nitrogen into slowly mineralized organic form, as compost. Crop-mycorrhizal associations could be facilitated to sequester carbon and access recalcitrant soil nitrogen. |
| 02-05-2024 10:20 | |
| Into the Night★★★★★ (21757) |
sealover wrote: Buzzword fallacies. Removed spam. The Parrot Killer Debunked in my sig. - tmiddles Google keeps track of paranoid talk and i'm not on their list. I've been evaluated and certified. - keepit nuclear powered ships do not require nuclear fuel. - Swan While it is true that fossils do not burn it is also true that fossil fuels burn very well - Swan |
| RE: You are deleted spam02-05-2024 18:19 | |
| sealover★★★★☆ (1392) |
Into the Night wrote:sealover wrote: --------------------- You are a buzzword fallacy. I wish you were removed spam. |
| 02-05-2024 20:27 | |
| Into the Night★★★★★ (21757) |
sealover wrote:Into the Night wrote:sealover wrote: LIF. Grow up. A buzzword is not a person, Sock. The Parrot Killer Debunked in my sig. - tmiddles Google keeps track of paranoid talk and i'm not on their list. I've been evaluated and certified. - keepit nuclear powered ships do not require nuclear fuel. - Swan While it is true that fossils do not burn it is also true that fossil fuels burn very well - Swan |
| RE: "organic carbon and nitrogen" right in title of new paper03-05-2024 02:18 | |
| sealover★★★★☆ (1392) |
This paper came out about 4 months ago. X. Zhao, et al. 2024. Fine roots and extramatrical mycelia regulate the composition of soil organic carbon and nitrogen in a subtropical montane forest. Forest Ecology and Management Volume 554 (Feb. 15, 2024) Cites the thread author, of course. Notice that the title says "organic carbon and nitrogen". Organic carbon and organic nitrogen. If only they had the benefit of our "resident science experts", they would have known that "organic carbon" and "organic nitrogen" are just meaningless buzzwords. Sooner or later, someone who knows that these terms are real, possibly even knows what they mean... That person might have a valid question to ask, or valid knowledge to contribute. And if they don't get too disgusted by all the troll feces, who knows? |
| 03-05-2024 02:46 | |
| Into the Night★★★★★ (21757) |
sealover wrote: Big hairy deal. sealover wrote: Carbon isn't organic. Nitrogen isn't organic. sealover wrote: Science is not experts, any paper, journal, magazine, website, government agency, university, college, degree, certification, license, or any other sanctification. sealover wrote: As real as the chemical element Proton. Circular argument fallacy (fundamentalism). Attempted proof by buzzword. The Parrot Killer Debunked in my sig. - tmiddles Google keeps track of paranoid talk and i'm not on their list. I've been evaluated and certified. - keepit nuclear powered ships do not require nuclear fuel. - Swan While it is true that fossils do not burn it is also true that fossil fuels burn very well - Swan |
| 03-05-2024 05:28 | |
| sealover★★★★☆ (1392) |
Carbon Sequestration and Allelopathy in Rainforest Fern Thickets. Wetlands are very effective at sequestering carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing it as organic carbon, preserved against decomposition by low oxygen conditions. Rainforest fern thickets are very effective at sequestering carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing it as organic carbon, preserved against decomposition under aerobic conditions by high vegetation tannin content. Fern thickets are specialists at taking over disturbed sites in rainforest. Where the canopy has been cleared and sunlight can reach the ground, a first wave of pioneer species moves in. Fast growing trees and brush exploit the available sunlight, and enhanced soil nutrient availability typically associated with site disturbance. The pioneer species get off to a good start, but then the ferns start creeping in. Their trick isn't to grow tall faster than anyone to get the sun. In fact, the ferns are relatively slow growers as they creep up like vines to cover the pioneer trees. The lower lying brush hasn't got a chance. The ferns just climb over and pile on top of it. The pioneer trees haven't got a chance. The ones that were tall enough to avoid being overtopped are now being poisoned by manganese toxicity. Within a decade, 2 meters thick accumulation of fern litter overlies the mineral soil surface. 2 meters tall ferns form a dense thicket on top of the litter. Pioneer trees are now dead trunks or sickly things with purple leaves displaying manganese toxicity. The conditions are wet, warm, and well aerated. Perfect for aerobic decompositon. Yet, in less than a decade a huge amount of organic carbon has piled up on top of the mineral soil, decomposing ever so slowly. A huge amount of carbon dioxide got sequestered from the atmosphere and is now stored in a thick litter layer above the soil. The fern has total phenolic content, from tannins, that are among the very highest among all plant species in the world. This makes it hard for microorganisms to degrade the fern litter. Tannins form complexes with proteins, making protein hard to degrade, and making other enzymes (proteins) needed for decomposition useless. Tannins also reduce manganese(IV) to manganese(II). The insoluble manganese(IV) in the solid phase soil was harmless to the plants. The soluble manganese(II) was released by abiotic reduction of manganese(IV) by fern tannins. Manganese(II) was released at such high concentration that it killed the plants that had roots in the mineral soil. The fern was immune to its own venom. Its entire root system is spread laterally among the litter above the mineral soil. The ferns never had to taste their own medicine. They are vicious competitors. Monospecific fern thickets can impede forest succession for decades. But they sure can sequester that carbon! And they are excellent ground cover to prevent erosion from disturbed sites. And that thick fern litter layer is like a giant sponge during downpours. Plenty of time for the rain to slowly trickle into the soil and groundwater without any surface runoff. Tree huggers don't like the fern thickets because they are lacking in biodiversity. Just one or two species of fern completely dominate the community. After displacing a far more diverse pioneer community. But the forest will eventually grow back in and shade the ferns out. Meanwhile, the fern thickets protected the soil and water supply, and built up a whole lot of soil organic matter for the next community. |
| 03-05-2024 05:30 | |
| sealover★★★★☆ (1392) |
Synchronized Canopy Dieback in Manganese-rich Island Arc Rainforests. Fern thickets can induce manganese toxicity in island arc rainforests. Island arcs occur where hot spots under the sea floor melt up a volcanic eruption. The sea floor moves along with plate tectonics. The hot spot doe not. The biggest tallest island in the arc is always the newest (Hawaii). Eventually, the oldest islands in the arc get washed away by the waves, leaving their submarine stubs (Emperor Sea Mounts). Sea floor is rich in manganese. Island arc soils are rich in manganese. You can see the black stains of the manganese everywhere if you look at these soils, or even just walk along the forest path. When fern thickest cause reductive dissolution of manganese to toxic levels that kill competitor pioneer trees, it was a localized event. There was a "winner" from the induced toxicity, a successful use of allelopathy in chemical warfare. But something happens in the manganese rich soils of Hawaiis rainforest to kill a lot of plants with manganese without any "winners". Synchronized canopy dieback. Doesn't happen often and requires a bad luck sequence of weather events. At one point in the sequence manganese rich soil that normally stays wet get dry. A whole lot of manganese(II) oxidizes to manganese(II), as bacteria use oxygen to get energy as manganese oxidizers. Then the bad luck of unusually wet weather. Waterlogged conditions prevail for a while and tons of manganese(IV) get reduced to manganese(II) by manganese reducing bacteria, who use manganese(IV) as oxidant for organic carbon. This isn't just a creepy fern killing some local residents for its own benefit. These can be entire hillslopes where more trees are dead than alive. The survivors have less competition now, but they're looking kind of sick. This was not allelopathic act of chemical warfare by a competitor. In synchronized canopy dieback, nobody wins. |
| 03-05-2024 05:31 | |
| sealover★★★★☆ (1392) |
Oxidative Coupling of Phenol Carboxylic Acids. Humus and Humic Acid Formation. Soil humus and soil humic acids are very important in soil fertility and ecology. Soil humic acids are VERY large, insoluble molecules which are polymers of phenol carboxylic acids, such as those that comprise tannins. It was known theoretically how it must happen, but collecting a field sample and measuring it in the lab to prove it was hard. It required going out into the forest during a rainstorm with a slurry of grain alcohol and dry ice to quickly freeze any water sample collected. Forest floor leachate sample collectors buried beneath the forest floor could be flushed out and allowed to refill with an absolutely fresh sample of rainfall that had passed through the needle litter of the forest floor. Some samples were immediately frozen in the field. Other samples were extracted with ethyl acetate, and they were frozen in the field as well. Thawing the fresh-frozen-in-the-field samples upon return to the lab revealed what nobody had ever seen before. The forest floor leachate showed high concentrations of identifiable monomeric phenol carboxylic acids - salicylic acid, protocatechuic acid, cinnamic acid, etc. Usually all you got were a bunch of amorphous, larger fulvic acids and humic acids. Usually the monomeric phenol carboxylic acids had already linked up into polymers through oxidative coupling. Fulvic acids and humic acids form anions with metal complexing capacity, among the many other things they do of benefit to soil productivity. It was fun to be the first to catch them in the act of forming in field-fresh samples. |
| 03-05-2024 05:32 | |
| sealover★★★★☆ (1392) |
Phenotypic Plasticity and Soil Carbon Loss in "Green Revolution" Crop Breeds. The "Green Revolution" allowed for incredible gains in crop yield through selective breeding of high responders to chemical fertilizer. Selective breeding for phenotypic plasticity in response to high bioavailability of soil nutrients. Given chemical fertilizer, the crop could thrive while providing little or no photosynthate to symbiotic mycorrhizal fungi associated with its roots. Given chemical nitrogen fertilizer, the crop could thrive while providing little or no photosynthate to symbiotic nitrogen fixing bacteria associated with its roots. The plant could pump most of its photosynthate into the part we wanted to harvest. It was great for yields. HUGE INCREASES. It wasn't so great for soil carbon. HUGE LOSSES. The new breeds of crops put very little organic carbon into the soil, compared to their ancestors. Soil organic matter would decompose more rapidly than it would be replaced. With "Green Revolution" crop breeds, agricultural soils became a NET SOURCE of CARBON DIOXIDE TO THE ATMOSPHERE as they experienced a NET LOSS OF SOIL ORGANIC MATTER. It's not too late to turn the trend around. |
| 03-05-2024 05:33 | |
| sealover★★★★☆ (1392) |
Nitrous Oxide Emission, Nitrate Export to Waters. "Green Revolution" By Products. The "Green Revolution" brought about spectacular increases in crop yields. As long as we spoon fed the crops concentrated chemical fertilizer, they could produce like crazy without having to put much carbon into the soil. As long as we made sure there was more than enough nitrogen fertilizer in an bioavailable form for minimal effort root uptake, HUGE YIELDS. One unanticipated adverse impact was loss of soil organic matter. It wasn't just bad for the atmosphere, as a major source of CO2. It was bad for the SOIL. It was bad for the sustainable productivity of the land. Soil organic matter does a whole lot more than just store carbon. Soil fertility depends on it. But what about the nitrogen. Humans were supplying LOTS of mineral nitrogen. More than the crop could possibly use. On average, less than 30% of applied agricultural nitrogen actually getting into the crop roots. Where does the rest go? If it started as UREA, first a soil microorganism hit it with urease enzyme. The urea releases two ammonium ions and drives up the pH to as high as 10. Eventually, nitrifying bacteria oxidize most of the ammonium to nitrite, and then immediately oxidize nitrite to nitrate. Nitrification in terrestrial soils is one of the major sources of NITROUS OXIDE. Now the applied nitrogen fertilizer is in the form of nitrate. Nitrate is a mobile anion with very little affinity to adsorb to soil surfaces. It is easily leached into groundwater or rinsed off as surface runoff. Enough nitrate in groundwater makes a well unusable for drinking water. Enough nitrate in surface water runoff can overfertilize aquatic ecosystems, leading to eutrophication, hypoxia, fish kills, and "dead zones" in the ocean. Nitrate is easily lost to nitrate reduction when microorganisms use nitrate under low oxygen conditions to oxidize organic carbon. Whether by denitrification, where nearly all the nitrate is reduced to nitrogen gas, or by dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium, nitrate reduction generates nitrous oxide as a by product. Nitrate reduction by microorganisms under low oxygen condition is the LARGEST SOURCE OF NITROUS OXIDE EMISSIONS. Agricultural nitrogen is the LARGEST SOURCE OF NITRATES BEING REDUCED. The "Green Revolution" brought about a HUGE increase in ANTHROPOGENIC NITROUS OXIDE EMISSIONS. Nitrous oxide has about 200 times as much global warming potential as CO2. |
| 03-05-2024 05:35 | |
| sealover★★★★☆ (1392) |
Soil Acidification Due to Nitrification of Ammonia Fertilizer. When urea, (H2N)2C=O, is hydrolyzed by urease enzyme, ammonium (NH4+) is released and microsite soil pH can be extremely high (>10). Conversely, when ammonium (NH4+) is oxidized by microorganisms during nitrification, NITRIC ACID IS GENERATED. Formation of nitric acid from urea or ammonium fertilizers is a widespread cause of acidification in agricultural soils. Acidification from nitrification of applied urea or ammonium fertilizer is the biggest reason lime (calcium carbonate, CaCO3) is applied to agricultural soils, with the exception of acid sulfate soils formed from drained wetlands. Acidification from nitrification of urea or ammonium fertilizer is one of the biggest reasons farmers buy synthetic nitrification inhibitors. Inhibiting nitrification prevents loss of nitrogen fertilizer, prevents soil acidification, and prevents requirement for liming to mitigate acidification. |
| 03-05-2024 05:35 | |
| sealover★★★★☆ (1392) |
The "Extended" Phenotype for Carbon Sequestration in Fern Thickets. The phenotype is the physical expression of the genotype interacting with the environment. The "environment" may include extra doses of royal jelly, which causes a very different phenotype where there is phenotypic plasticity. But the phenotype isn't limited to the physical structure of the organism. Richard Dawkins proposed the "extended" phenotype to highlight where genotype is expressed beyond the physical structure of the organism. Nest building by birds, for example. Natural selection favors the birds that build a better nest, even though the nest isn't part of the birds body structure. Nest building would also lend itself to phenotypic plasticity. If our human "nests" are part of our "extended" phenotype, they range from igloos made of ice floating over the north pole to ships capable of long voyages. The fern thickets "extended" phenotype includes creating a very deep layer of litter above the mineral soil. Building a nest where all its lateral rhizomes extend. The ferns are not remarkably productive as far as photosynthesis goes. Just a pale lime green that is only competitive in full sunlight, easily shaded out. But the relatively small amount of carbon they capture through photosynthesis is disproportionately comprised of tannin which inhibits decomposition. Ferns thickets sequester and store carbon at a higher rate than other ecosystems with higher net primary productivity, because the mean residence time of the litter they produce is so much longer. We could employ the "extended" phenotype of plants to help us sequester more carbon from the atmosphere and keep it in the soil. |
| 03-05-2024 05:37 | |
| sealover★★★★☆ (1392) |
Variable Rate Technology: Farming by the Foot. It is possible for farmers to use variable rate technology for application of agricultural chemicals. For example, the "weed zapper" uses machine vision to distinguish the weed from the crop, and selectively applies herbicide by aiming the spray directly at the weed. And nobody else. Where herbicide must be used in soil to control weeds, often there is much higher herbicide requirement where soil organic matter content is higher. Soil organic matter adsorbs and neutralizes herbicide. More herbicide is required for effective weed control in microsites where soil organic matter content is highest. Near infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) can instantaneously assess where soil organic matter content is higher and apply higher rates of herbicide. Machine vision can tell if the crop isn't green enough, foot by foot, to adjust fertilizer application rates accordingly. Machine vision can tell if the crop is diplaying excess or deficiency of nutrients. Machine vision can tell if the crop is displaying symptoms of pests or disease. A simple drone flyover could now provide a farmer with a detailed map of which parts of the field require more or less of which agricultural chemicals. Typically, more than 70% of applied nitrogen fertilizer does not get taken up into crop roots. Variable rate technology can dramatically improve nitrogen use efficiency, and reduce adverse environmental impacts of excess application of nitrogen fertilizer. Variable rate technology could also allow us to monitor soil carbon storage as we tweak chemical application rates to enhance soil organic matter content. |
| 03-05-2024 05:38 | |
| sealover★★★★☆ (1392) |
Hans Jenny was one of the all time greatest geniuses in soil science. His contributions are many, including the dramatic increases in corn harvests that followed his theoretical development of dry ammonia adsorption to soil. Perhaps his greatest contribution was to help us understand what soil IS. Soils are dynamic natural bodies having properties derived from the combined effect of climate and organisms acting on soil parent materials, as modified by topography, over finite periods of time. An equation: soil = f(climate, organisms, parent material, topography, time) Indeed, given sufficient information about the factors of soil formation, one can very accurately predict what the soil profile must look like. Jack Major took Hans Jenny's theory one step further. ECOSYTEMS have properties that can be predicted by a state factor model. An equation: Ecosystem (organisms) = f(climate, soil, topography, time) He just rearranged Jenny's equation. Ecosystems have predictable properties derived from interactions between soil, climate, and organisms, modified by topography, over finite periods of time. If you have enough information about climate, soil, topography, and AGE of the community in its succession cycle, you can accurately predict the details of the ecosystem adapted to it. I had the good fortune of knowing both Hans Jenny and Jack Major. It's fun to hang out with scientific geniuses! |
| 03-05-2024 05:39 | |
| sealover★★★★☆ (1392) |
Shifting Soil Carbon with Global Warming - The Mycorrhizal Connection There is an underground network of fungal hyphae FAR more extensive than the root systems of the plants. About 50 times as much soil surface area is in contact with fungal hyphae, rather than plant root. Some of these fungi are independent operators, just looking for a food source. Most of these fungi are in symbiotic partnership with the plants, connected to their root systems. There are multiple connections to global warming, only a few of which will fit into this post. One big change with global warming is that taiga is expanding northward into tundra. The southern tundra has warmed up enough that taiga forest can now move in to out compete the tundra. One big difference between taiga and tundra, besides average size of the plants, is the makeup of the mycorrhizal fungi community. Ericoid mycorrhiza dominate the tundra. Ectomycorrhiza and some vesicular arbuscular mycorrhiza dominate the taiga. When warmer conditions permit taiga to overtake tundra, there begins a net LOSS of soil organic matter. Net EMISSION of CO2 to the atmosphere. Ericoid mycorrhiza did a much better job storing carbon in the soil than do ectomycorrhiza. The taiga is still pumping carbon underground via mycorrhizal fungi, but not nearly as much as the tundra did. And the former tundra soil has thawed enough to allow the massive reservoir of organic carbon to decompose and release carbon dioxide. Similar shifts occur without the confounding variable of frozen soil thawing in other places. Where nitric acid in "acid rain" caused fast growing weeds to take over heathlands in Europe's "low" countries (barely above sea level), this brought about a net loss of soil organic matter. Again, the new species that moved in did NOT have the ericoid mycorrhiza that dominated the heathland before their arrival. In these cases, it was more clear that the loss of soil carbon was due to shift in mycorrhizal fungi, and not influenced by a new thawing of the underlying soil. |
| 03-05-2024 05:40 | |
| sealover★★★★☆ (1392) |
"On Demand" Fertilizer via Mycorrhizal Fungi Nature provides a model for ensuring that applied nitrogen remains stable in the soil until the crop plant is ready to use it. Only the crop plant can access the nitrogen, starving out the competing weeds without need for herbicide. None of the nitrogen will be lost to nitrate leaching or denitrification. Consider the ericoid mycorrhizal associations of heathland communities. The plants have very high polyphenol content, ensuring that the nitrogen in their litter is immobilized in a recalcitrant form resistant to mineralization. The enzyme required to mobilize the nitrogen is made only by the ericoid mycorrhizal fungi associated with the roots of the polyphenol rich plant. Nitrogen is supplied "on demand" as the plant feeds its mycorrhizal fungi when it needs more. Otherwise the nitrogen just sits there waiting as long as needed This also maximizes soil carbon accumulation, which is nice. |
| 03-05-2024 05:41 | |
| sealover★★★★☆ (1392) |
A tale of two coffee plantations. Coffee is, by far, the biggest cash crop in the central highlands of the Dominican Republic. Most coffee farmers still use the traditional agroforestry method to grow it. There is an overstory of Inga vera trees. These tall trees have nitrogen fixing bacteria associated with their roots. Inga vera litterfall provides the nitrogen fertilizer to the coffee bushes. Throughout the plantation are also mid sized trees, usually citrus. All throughout the ground level are smaller crops, typically root crops such as cassava. There is no harm tearing up a small patch of soil to dig out the roots. Inga vera litter is everywhere to cover it up and protect from erosion. In addition to Inga vera, there are often other tall trees. Usually precious wood, like mahogany. Every plant on the farm is of economic value. Inga vera eventually provides wood as well, though not so precious. Great for firewood or charcoal. But much of the sunlight in the plantation is supporting plants that are not coffee bushes. The coffee yield per hectare is low, compared to a monocrop system. The monocrop coffee plantations (a pleno sol) have ALL the sunlight supporting coffee bushes, and only coffee bushes. The yield of these monocrop plantations is much lower than the agroforestry version for coffee production. The monocrop coffee plantations must be provided with exogenous nitrogen fertilizer to produce well. Not the case with agroforestry. The monocrop coffee plantations have declining yield over the years, and are subject to runoff and erosion, while being less resistant to drought. Not the case with agroforestry. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rethinking coffee processing as a source of biofuel. Coffee berries are sweet. Lots of sugar that often ferments to alcohol. When the coffee berries are harvested, they are taken elsewhere to be depulped and have the coffee seeds dry out in the sun. A mechanical "despulpador", electric or gasoline powered, removes the sweet berry pulp, which is discarded. The seeds are then laid out in the sun to dry. The discarded pulp is eventually collected and used as nutrient rich compost. By then, the sugar is all gone. Coffee berry wine is easy to make, but not very palatable. However, if the coffee berry pulp were first used to make wine, it could be distilled to make ethanol biofuel. Later, the nutrient rich compost can be used. It would be one extra step in the coffee processing process. |
| 03-05-2024 05:42 | |
| sealover★★★★☆ (1392) |
Northern California coastal pines in Australia and New Zealand Two pine species from the coast of northern California were used for large scale forest plantations in Australia and New Zealand. Monterrey pine taken to Australia in the 1940s provided major evidence for the indispensable role of mycorrhizal fungi. Bishop pine (Pinus muricata) introduced in more recent decades to large scale plantations in New Zealand provided major evidence for another important factor to consider. Bishop pines use much less water than the native vegetation that was cleared to make room for them. This altered hydrologic conditions significantly. Much less soil water was being consumed by evapotranspiration. Much more soil water was going downslope as subsurface flow. This created new wetlands at the bottom of the slopes, messed up a lot of farmland, and created a need to intervene with engineering to facilitate drainage. On the other hand, foresters have long known that they could introduce more water demanding species to let trees help drain swampy areas through increased evapotranspiration of subsurface flow coming in. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [quote]sealover wrote: Mycorrhizal fungi - Is coca like Monterrey pine? Monterrey pine helped scientists realize just how important mycorrhizal fungi. Without the symbiotic fungi associated with their roots, they grow very poorly. Foresters thought Monterrey pine would do well in Australia. It did not. The soil and climate were right for it. Why was it growing so poorly (at first). Well, they took the pine seeds from California, but they didn't think to bring along the symbiotic mycorrhizal fungi. After a disastrous start for the pine plantations and some research to figure out what went wrong... They brought over some California soil that contained the fungi. After inoculation with the fungal partners, the pine plantations thrived. Why is coca restricted to the Andes? Couldn't it grow in the Himalayas or some other high mountain range with similar soil and climate? I'm sure that many have tried and failed. Good thing they don't know fungus. |
| 03-05-2024 05:44 | |
| sealover★★★★☆ (1392) |
Root:shoot ratio versus belowground allocation of carbon. I had the incredible good fortune of being a friend and colleague to Hans Jenny, the world's preeminent soil scientist. I wish he had lived long enough to find out that I followed his advice and conducted research to test my hypothesis in his favorite ecosystem of all the world, northern California's pygmy forest. In 1985, the first presentation of his that I attended was to open up the John Muir House in Martinez, California as a museum. Hans Jenny spoke of one the adverse environmental impacts of the "Green Revolution". The new breeds were able to produce such phenomenal above ground yields because they were allocating very little carbon below ground to acquire nutrients. The result was continuous net loss of soil organic matter, as it was decomposing faster than it was being replaced. This made the soil a net source of carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere. By spoon feeding our crops concentrated nutrients in mineral form, they could produce minimal root systems and thrive. However, if one only measures the root:shoot ratio of the crop, one would conclude that the new breeds were putting no less carbon underground than their ancestors. How much carbon a plant allocates underground is not the same as how much root mass the plant produces. Nearly all plants allocate a substantial fraction of their photosynthate below ground to feed symbiotic mycorrhizal fungi on their roots. Some plants, such as legumes, allocate carbon below ground to feed symbiotic nitrogen fixing bacteria. Such allocations of photosynthate to symbiotic underground organisms are made to acquire nutrients from the soil. The plants won't do it if they don't have to. One of the most common mycorrhizal association is the vessicular arbuscular variety. The plant roots are actually smaller when these are present. Root tips are short and stubby. Instead, the hyphae network of the symbiotic fungi extend out everywhere, contacting about fifty times as much soil surface as the roots of the plant. The plant generously feeds its fungal partner in exchange for nutrients that the fungi acquires from the soil. Shifting back to pre "Green Revolution" breeds would result in smaller yields. On the other hand, it would enable the organic matter content to rebuild, with all the associated soil productivity benefits. This would then enable our agricultural soils to become, once again, a net sink for atmospheric carbon dioxide. Rather than being net emitters of CO2 to the atmosphere, farm soils could be a major net sink to sequester CO2 and transform it into soil organic matter. With much higher nutrient use efficiency, less fertilizer would be needed, and far less excess fertilizer would enter waters or emit nitrous oxide to the atmosphere. |
| 03-05-2024 05:45 | |
| sealover★★★★☆ (1392) |
Peasant agricultural science and agroforestry In the 1980s, agronomists began the effort to understand peasant agricultural science in a new way. I had the fortune of knowing Miguel Altieri, of UC Berkeley, and Gerardo Budowski, of Costa Rica's CATIE. Gerardo took us on a tour to see multiple agroforestry practices among the minority of farmers who still knew how to manage them. With all the diversity of a natural forest, one might not know that they had stumbled on to somebody's farm. Multiple canopies of multiple plant species, all of value to the farmer. The local agronomists on the tour were as different from their compatriot peasants as I was. They were city boys who had undergone two years of training in at the ag school in the big city. They knew how to apply all the chemicals, fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, etc. They had no idea what they were looking at on the agroforestry farm. Their training would have been to advise the farmer to mow it all down and switch to monocrop, mechanized agriculture using lots of chemicals. "Rendimiento sostenible" (sustainable yield) was possible when the peasant agricultural science was applied. Declining yield, declining soil organic matter content, increased erosion, and runoff of chemicals into water supplies was possible when the trained agronomists came in to fix the inefficient system |
| 03-05-2024 05:47 | |
| sealover★★★★☆ (1392) |
Carbon sequestration and nitrogen cycling are very important regarding climate change. Polyphenols and lignin are very important regarding carbon sequestration and nitrogen cycling. My most famous scientific paper was published in the journal Nature, in 1995. It has been cited in 765 different peer-reviewed scientific papers and textbooks. It includes lignin research and proves that lignin is NOT the most important regulator of nitrogen cycling. The paper: Polyphenol control of nitrogen release from pine litter. 1995. Nature. Volume 377. Pages 227-229. Quoting from Figure 2 - "...and lignin was measured by the acid detergent method (reference #30). Regressions of these parameters versus the ratio of DON:mineral nitrogen were as follows: Condensed tannins (r2 = 0.99, p = <0.001), total phenolics (r2 = 0.90, p = <0.001), C:N ratio (r2 = 0.76, p = <0.001), and lignin (not significant)." In the pine litter samples studied, lignin ranged from 20-40%. But release of mineral nitrogen was not significantly correlated to lignin. However, it was highly significantly correlated to condensed tannin and total phenolic content. Scientists in the real world who know what lignin is and study it took this very seriously. It has been known for more than a century that lignin can form strong complexes with protein. These ligno protein complexes are very difficult for microorganisms to degrade. Release of mineral nitrogen from them is slow. Lignin can also form strong complexes with carbohydrates. These lignin-carbohydrate complexes are a common component of cell walls, where all the lignin is found. The acid detergent method separates all carbohydrates from lignin-carbohydrate complexes, dissolving the saccharide and leaving behind the lignin as insoluble residue. Note: for a one-word unambiguous definition of carbohydrate, use "saccharide". All carbohydrates are saccharides, and all saccharides are carbohydrates. Mono saccharides include glucose and fructose. Di saccharides include sucrose (glucose + fructose) and lactose (glucose + galactose). Oligosaccharides include starch and cellulose, as well as hemi celluloses. All saccharides dissolve in acid detergent. Lignin is not a carbohydrate. For decades ecologists had debated whether or not carbon:nitrogen ratio or lignin was a better predictor for nitrogen release from decomposing organic matter. My 1995 paper in Nature blew it wide open. It is still possible someone that will join the website who wants to discuss this kind of real world science as it applies to climate change.[/quote] |
| 03-05-2024 05:49 | |
| sealover★★★★☆ (1392) |
Among the papers that cited the 1998 Biogeochemistry paper, this is one of the ones I am most proud to have influenced. It is highly relevant to the thread topic. Claire Chenu et al. 2019. Increasing organic stocks in agricultural soils: Knowledge gaps and potential innovations. Soil and Tillage Research. Volume 188 Pages 41-52. This paper has been cited in 433 different peer-reviewed papers, etc., and will likely pick up a whole lot more in the next few years. |
| 03-05-2024 05:50 | |
| sealover★★★★☆ (1392) |
[/quote] So, the breakthrough discovery is that by plowing/turning organic matter into the farm fields, it sort of fertilizes the soil for the next year's crop? Can't believe nobody thought of this centuries ago...[/quote] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ It is a valid point that centuries ago, indeed thousands of years ago, humans had engineered sustainable agriculture methods that maintained high levels of soil organic matter. Some farming methods, such as those that create plaggen sods, substantially increased soil organic matter content, compared to the natural ecosystem that previously occupied the site. But these are not "breakthrough discoveries", and they are not what this research was about. As the title suggests, there are "knowledge gaps" and "innovations" discussed. Say what you want about carbon dioxide, but who could be opposed to improving soil fertility? My own research was cited extensively in the "knowledge gap" section. Important new questions that nobody thought to ask before. Prevailing assumptions that turned out to be wrong, requiring new approaches to research. Peasant agricultural science had already reached a high level of sophistication before the pyramids were built. But they didn't know much about biogeochemistry. Or mycorrhizal fungi. HarveyH55, I suspect that you are not really interested in a more complete reply than this |
| 03-05-2024 05:52 | |
| sealover★★★★☆ (1392) |
This paper just came out two days ago. Sven Korz et al. 2023. Effect of grape pomace varieties and soil characteristics on the leaching potential of total carbon, nitrogen, and polyphenols. Soil Systems. Volume 7(2) page 49- Quite relevant to the thread topic. Using different varieties of grape pomace as fertilizer, they tracked the movement of total carbon, nitrogen, and polyphenols. Enriching soil organic carbon content and providing nitrogen fertilizer to the crop. They cited yours truly because my discovery enabled them to make sense of the results. They found that hydrolysable tannins (polyphenols) penetrated to more than 10 cm depth into the top soil. While the grape pomace added more organic nitrogen to the soil, the quantity of mineral nitrogen (ammonium or nitrate) leaching out of that zone DECREASED. They concluded that, as per my hypothesis, polyphenols bound up protein that was already in the soil, reducing the ability of microorganisms to mineralize it. The point of all the bragging is in case a viewer who has genuine interest in the thread topic wants to discuss it further, they will know that the active members of this website are not EXCLUSIVELY comprised of scientifically illiterate trolls. Organic nitrogen, versus mineral nitrogen is an important concept. Organic nitrogen is bound to carbon atoms. Not just any carbon atoms. Organic nitrogen is bound to atoms of organic carbon. Ammonium carbonate, for example, is nitrogen bound to carbon. But that carbon is inorganic. Fully oxidized. Ammonium carbonate is mineral nitrogen. Urea H2N-C=O-NH2, Doesn't look clear here, but it is two amino groups bound to a carbonyl carbon. Carbonyl carbon is double bonded to oxygen. Kind of a gray area in terms of not being COMPLETELY oxidized carbon, but urea is not organic nitrogen. Proteins and amino acids are organic forms of nitrogen. The term "organic carbon" is clearly defined in any organic chemistry textbook. Inorganic carbon is fully oxidized forms of carbon - carbon dioxide, bicarbonate ion, and carbonate ion. Organic carbon is the thousands of OTHER carbon compounds that are in chemically reduced form. Organic carbon becomes inorganic carbon as soon as it oxidizes. Inorganic carbon becomes organic carbon as soon as it gets reduced. Such as during photosynthesis. |
| 03-05-2024 05:53 | |
| sealover★★★★☆ (1392) |
Another publication came out earlier this year, citing yours truly, and making the connection between plant-litter-soil interactions and climate change. U. Schickhoff et al. 2023. The treeline ecotone in Rolwaling Himal, Nepal: Pattern-process relationships and treeline shift potential. IN Singh, S.P. et al. (eds) Ecology of Himalayan Treeline Ecotone. pages 95-145. This is about the fact that the Himalayan treeline is moving uphill to higher altitude, and efforts to identify variables to better predict future changes. Global warming is occurring more rapidly at the highest latitudes and the highest altitudes. "Warming trends across Nepal have increased to 0.2 degrees C per decade" This rate is a bit higher than the global average. "The treeline position in Rowling is lagging behind climate changes" Soils have already warmed enough that should permit tree growth at much higher altitude than before. The treeline has already moved to higher altitude, but not as rapidly as soil temperatures would predict. This is most notable where rhododendron thickets ("krummholz") occur above the treeline. And then it gets back to vegetation chemistry and the influence of polyphenols on the cycling of carbon and nitrogen, as well as the thermal insulation properties of the accumulated rhododendron litter layer. The trees are going to have to wait a while longer before they can move on up into these areas where rhododendron forms thick insulating litter layers and nitrogen is tied up in forms for which their ericoid mycorrhizal fungi have a competitive acquisition advantage. |
| 03-05-2024 05:55 | |
| sealover★★★★☆ (1392) |
Another good reference for the thread topic. Needless to say, they acknowledge my scientific discoveries with a citation. And that isn't to taunt the trolls. It is in the hope that this will be taken seriously by someone who is interested in the topic. And perhaps would never join the discussion, or even read any of the other posts, without knowing that there is a participant who doesn't have to just make shit up about science. It is an excellent review article of many different investigations, in the highly respected peer-reviewed scientific journal called Agronomy. (2021) Alexandra Tiefenbacher et al. 2021. Optimizing carbon sequestration in croplands: A synthesis. Agronomy. Volume 11(5) Pages 882- The paper speaks for itself. The title speaks for itself. |
| 03-05-2024 05:57 | |
| sealover★★★★☆ (1392) |
This paper, which refers to "organic carbon" in the title, came out earlier this year. Meisam Nazari et al. 2023. Keeping thinning-derived deadwood logs on forest floor improves soil organic carbon, microbial biomass, and enzyme activity in a temperate spruce forest. European Journal of Forest Research. Volume 142. Pages 287-300. Yeah, they cited me. Apparently, the authors, reviewers, and publishers all agreed that it made sense to use the term "organic carbon" in the title. Maybe organic carbon really does exist, despite the fact that "carbon is an element." This paper is about forest management, not croplands. As per the thread title, these are agroecosystems. This paper is not based on climate change or concern about atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide. It is about soil productivity and its dependence on organic carbon. It is about preventing loss of soil organic carbon in order to avoid loss of loss of forest productivity |
| 03-05-2024 05:59 | |
| sealover★★★★☆ (1392) |
This paper, which refers to "organic carbon" in the title, came out earlier this year. Meisam Nazari et al. 2023. Keeping thinning-derived deadwood logs on forest floor improves soil organic carbon, microbial biomass, and enzyme activity in a temperate spruce forest. European Journal of Forest Research. Volume 142. Pages 287-300.[/quote] Does it have the same effect in other-than-spruce forests, or forests that are not temperate? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The effect is consistent with what is seen throughout the world on podzol soils. In this case, what is growing on the podzol happens to be spruce. Podzols can be found from the equator to Siberia. Indeed, the term "podzol" is from the early Russian soil scientists. Podzols form under humid conditions when the soil parent material is of very high silica content. Metal complexing organic acids leaching out of the forest floor strip away what little aluminum, iron, and manganese was present in the uppermost part of the mineral soil. This leaves behind an acidified white sand layer of nearly pure quartz. Roots don't even try to get nutrients from this layer. Podzols are very vulnerable to poor management. For example, when subjected to slash and burn agriculture, they rapidly diminish in productivity, as they rapidly lose the organic carbon from the soil. It is difficult to restore productivity after the soil nutrients, which were scarce in the first place, are lost along with the organic carbon. By leaving the slash from tree thinning operations on the soil surface, they dramatically improved retention of organic carbon and associated nutrients in the underlying soil.[/quote] |
| 03-05-2024 06:00 | |
| sealover★★★★☆ (1392) |
sealover wrote: Did you know that some of the poorest soils are in the tropical rain forests? It's all up in the trees and other vegetation. There is no such thing as 'organic carbon'.[/quote] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Most people are not soil scientists, and misconceptions about rain forest soil are common. "It's all up in the trees and other vegetation". Nope. Even in the most nutrient poor soils in the world, which happen to be Podzols, also known as Spodosols, there are far fewer nutrients contained in the above ground biomass compared to the dead organic matter in the soil. "Nutrients" being forms of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, sulfur, calcium, magnesium, etc., that plants can use. The more common misconception is that tropical rain forest soils are always very infertile. Some of the most fertile soils in the world can be found under tropical rain forests. Andisols, formed from young volcanic parent material, are highly fertile. Rain forests in Rwanda growing on deposits of volcanic ash, volcanic mud flows, or lava flows, have highly fertile andisol soils. They can be slashed and burned for centuries and come back with productive harvests every time. Entisols are very young soils. Too young to have developed much. And sometimes extremely fertile. In the Ganges delta, eroded top soil from the Himalayas washes down and deposits as new islands. If left alone, they support rain forests with very highly fertile soil. Usually farmers get there first. But Podzols, or Spodosols, are extremely infertile soils found under some rain forests. "Acid white sands" are the most extreme. Next post will reference my earliest pub (1994) which gets into a lot of detail on acid white sand rain forest soils, and their California counterpart, an ancient Spodosol (Podzol) on the coast with what is, literally, the world's most infertile soil. Even there, the above ground biomass contains less than 15% of the nutrients found in the ecosystem.[/quote] |
| 03-05-2024 06:02 | |
| sealover★★★★☆ (1392) |
Soil science is a major underlying theme in discussion of carbon sequestration. My first significant paper about these things was published in 1995. (Yours truly et al). 1995. Intraspecific variation of conifer phenolic concentration on a marine terrace soil acidity gradient; A new interpretation. Plant and Soil. Volume 171, pages 255-262. These coastal terraces on have soils ranging from pH 5 on the youngest and most fertile terrace to pH 3 on the oldest and least fertile terrace. The pygmy forest grows on ancient soils (ranging from 300000 to 500000 years of soil development) that are EXTREMELY infertile and strongly acidic. It was an ideal opportunity to investigate the mechanisms that enable oligotrophic ecosystems to sustain productivity over geologic time, recycling a tiny pool of nutrients under conditions of high potential leaching loss. It turns out that the same mechanisms that prevent nutrient loss also prevent loss of soil organic carbon. The "gibber babble" will be meaningless to scientifically illiterate trolls. Sooner or later, someone will join the discussion who understands actual science and the "gibber babble" used to communicate it. It may be of historic interest to have a reference for what was literally the first paper published on this particular topic - chemical adaptations to extreme soil conditions. The trolls may continue to insist that I don't even know what science is. That's okay. Other scientists take my work pretty seriously. Maybe the next post should get into some of the papers that CITED this one, coming out after 1995, because they continue right up to this year. And since a fundamental requirement of the scientific method is that the results must be "reproducible", it is an important reality test after a discovery is published to see if other scientists can confirm it. In fact, obvious proof that a "discovery" was NOT valid is if nobody ever bothers to cite it because it wasn't reproducible. Of if the only citations are to refute it. |
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