[Oilgood]

Has anyone here ever heard of "Terra Preta" ("black earth")? Apparently it is a type of soil in the Amazon that actually grows into the ground, and is prized by farmers in south america for its richness and fertility. It it supposed to be created when Indians in the Amazons burn wood waste on the ground until it turns to charcoal, and on that area of the ground vegetation grows much more prolifically due to the Terra Preta. Does anyone know any more details about this Terra Preta? Is there any way it can be grown in temperate and subtropical climates and non-rainforest soils?

[bart]

There's an article about it in the Chronicle of Higher Education. For an onlnie version, see: link Here are the first few paragraphs:

Chronicle of Higher Education, December 3, 2004
Earth Movers Archaeologists say Brazil's rain forest, once thought to be inhospitable to humans, fostered huge ancient civilizations. The proof is in the dirt. By MARION LLOYD:
Iranduba, Brazil--High along bluffs overlooking the confluence of the mighty Negro and Solimões Rivers here, supersize eggplants, papayas, and cassava spring from the ground.

Their exuberance defies a long-held belief about the Amazon. For much of the last half century, archaeologists viewed the South American rain forest as a "counterfeit paradise," a region whose inhospitable environment precluded the development of complex societies. But new research suggests that prehistoric man found ways to overcome the jungle's natural limitations -- and to thrive in this environment in large numbers.

The secret, says James B. Petersen, an archaeologist at the University of Vermont who has spent the past decade working in the Brazilian Amazon, is found in the ground beneath his feet. It is a highly fertile soil called terra preta do indio, which is Portuguese for "Indian black earth." By some estimates, this specially modified soil covers as much as 10 percent of Amazonia, the immense jungle region that straddles the Amazon River. And much of that area is packed with potsherds and other signs of human habitation.

"This was one of the last archaeological frontiers on the planet. It's as if we know nothing about it," says Mr. Petersen, as he analyzes the discovery of the day, a series of circular carbon deposits that might indicate the outline of a prehistoric house. ....

[Oilgood]

Could Terra Preta be useful in dealing with the decline of Petro-chemical agriculture after Peak Oil? Could it also help in combating soil degredation?

[Devil]

I've been in tropical rain forests in many countries and can assure you that there is no future in trying to exploit them.

Firstly, the average soil depth to base rock is only 10 - 30 cm.

Where the forest has burned due to lightning strikes or man-made activity, a thick layer of charcoal and ash might double the depth. In time, with the rain, this is incorporated in the soil, before much vegetation starts. The natural result is a much more fertile soil, rich in potash, and a "secondary jungle" of thick bushes and undergrowth quickly flourishes or good crops can be grown. However, the richness of this soil is quickly exhausted, aided by erosion, typically in 1 - 2 years, and primary rain forest cannot re-establish itself, except as a slow advance from the edges of the remaining primary forest. I have been told that a 1 km² clearing will take typically 1,000 years to re-establish as primary rain forest and a 10 km² clearing 50,000 years. This is because the rain forest is a unique system. The trees are both evergreen and deciduous, which means there is a constant litter which decomposes in a few days, on the ground, but the nutrients are absorbed again, just as fast. There is no accumulation of humus, as in temperate forests, which is why the soil is so thin. It is also why the trees have wide, spreading roots, often in the form of buttresses, so that they can have the mechanical support on the thin layer.

One thing that has always amazed me in tropical rain forests is how few mushrooms one sees. Yes, on fallen logs, one can see a layer of moss (light is usually availabe where a log has fallen) and some small, spindly mushrooms, but very rarely on the ground. This is because the leaves decompose so rapidly, that the funguses involved never have the time to develop a spore body like we are used to in temperate climates. The layer of rotting leaves do have mycelia growing through them, but the fruiting bodies are so small as to remain invisible, for the most part. Even wood decomposes rapidly, although it may take a few years for a large log to be absorbed back by its brethren.

Until you have seen the dark gloom of a rain forest, it is something unimaginable. I have had to use shutter speeds of 1/10th of a second with an f 1.8 lens at full aperture with a 100 ASA film in the rain forest, where the canopy is in full sunlight. Virtually nothing visible grows there except trees, until you come to where a large tree has fallen or some other clearing.

Leave it alone, please!

[Oilgood]

I'm not saying we cut down the Amazon and cover it in Terra Preta and turn it all into farmland. I'm asking if it is possible to re-create Terra Preta in other soils and climates throughout the world.

[bart]

I'm asking if it is possible to re-create Terra Preta in other soils and climates throughout the world.

Fortunately, there are known ways to create good soil in areas outside the rain forest. For example, compost, cover crops, no-till farming, and going easy on (or eliminating) pesticides. We don't need to wait until the scientists figure out how the Amazonians created Terra Preta. The article I mentioned points out that Terra Preta is still the subject of controversy and some scientists are afraid that talk of Terra Preta may further encourage farming in rainforests with disasterous consequences.
Nonetheless, the prospect of Terra Preta is intriguing -- a way to create soil in the harsh tropical environment described by Devil.

The research has implications not only for history, but also for the future of the Amazon rain forest. If scientists could discover how the Amerindians transformed the soil, farmers could use the technology to maximize smaller plots of land, rather than cutting down ever larger swaths of jungle. The benefits of what Mr. Petersen calls this "gift from the past" are already well known to farmers in the area, who plant their crops wherever they find terra preta. ...

"I know terra preta is very good and that it was made by the Indians," says Edson Azevedo Santos, a 48-year-old farmer drenched in sweat from weeding his zucchini patch. Unlike the acidic soil found in most of the rain forest, which can only sustain crops for a three-year period, terra preta plots can withstand constant farming for decades, if properly managed.

Even more striking, terra preta may have the capacity to regenerate itself, says Mr. Woods, the Southern Illinois geographer. He recently tested that possibility by removing a large section of terra preta on a plot near Santarem. To his amazement, the soil grew back within three years. "I suggested that the soil should be treated as living organism and that microorganisms are the secret," he says, adding that more research is needed to allow scientists to repeat the process. "This is very sophisticated stuff."
"Earth Movers" article

[gg3]

I read the article and it seems to me that part of it has to do with a constant low-level clearing and burning activity: but "burning" more at the level of "smouldering" rather than what we usually think of. This smouldering probably releases a different set of chemicals into the ground than the usual high-temperature burning of "slash and burn" agriculture. I would have to guess that various microorganisms are also partially responsible.

The other thing that struck me was the degree of ideological stuff going on between anthropologists. Everyone's committed to their theories almost to the point of not wanting to listen to facts that don't agree. Out of that emerges something like a middle ground:

a) There were some fairly sophisticated Indian cultures in the area,
b) They weren't particularly large societies,
c) They developed (probably through trial and error, i.e. empirical method) agricultural techniques that enriched the soil,
d) Western science should be looking to figure out how it's done, and if it can be done in other climates and ecosystems, but
e) We still shouldn't take that as license to pave over the Amazon with industrial agriculture,
f) Instead, we should utilize those techniques in already-developed areas.

[The_Virginian]

slash and burn on a small scale as practiced by indiginous tribes is fine...only when thousands of acres are burn at once does the real destruction begin.

Intresting @ the micro-organisims....something that feeds on wood ash? a fungus that would cause blight or rot? Can't wait untill those answers come out... ...definitly something us western ("northern") farmers must look into, but oh so carefully.

[erich]

The integrated energy strategy offered by 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.


I feel we should push for this Terra Preta Soils CO2 sequestration strategy as not only a global warming remedy for the first world, but to solve fertilization and transport issues for the third world. This information needs to be shared with all the state programs.

The economics look good, and truly great if we had CO2 cap & trade in place:

These are processes where you can have your Bio-fuel and fertility too.

'Terra Preta' soils I feel has great possibilities to revolutionize sustainable agriculture into a major CO2 sequestration strategy.
I thought, I first read about these soils in " Botany of Desire " or "Guns,Germs,&Steel" but I could not find reference to them. I finely found the reference in "1491", but I did not realize their potential .


Nature article: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v4 ... 2624a.html


Here's the Cornell page for an over view:
http://www.css.cornell.edu/faculty/lehm...r_home.htm

This Earth Science Forum thread on these soil contains further links ( I post everything I find on Amazon Dark Soils, ADS here):
http://forums.hypography.com/earth-scie ... preta.html


The Georgia Inst. of Technology page:
http://www.energy.gatech.edu/presentations/dday.pdf

There is an ecology going on in these soils that is not completely understood, and if replicated and applied at scale would have multiple benefits for farmers and environmentalist.

Terra Preta creates a terrestrial carbon reef at a microscopic level. These nanoscale structures provide safe haven to the microbes and fungus that facilitate fertile soil creation, while sequestering carbon for many hundred if not thousands of years. The combination of these two forms of sequestration would also increase the growth rate and natural sequestration effort of growing plants.

Also, Terra Preta was on the Agenda at this years world Soil Science Conference !
http://crops.confex.com/crops/wc2006/te...P16274.HTM



Here is a great article that high lights this pyrolysis process , ( http://www.eprida.com/hydro/ ) which could use existing infrastructure to provide Charcoal sustainable Agriculture , Syn-Fuels, and a variation of this process would also work as well for H2 , Charcoal-Fertilizer, while sequestering CO2 from Coal fired plants to build soils at large scales , be sure to read the "See an initial analysis NEW" link of this technology to clean up Coal fired power plants.

Soil erosion, energy scarcity, excess greenhouse gas all answered through regenerative carbon management http://www.newfarm.org/columns/research ... coal.shtml

.
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 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 since Tobacco.
That is: an invention of pre-Columbian American culture, destroyed by western disease, may well be the savior of industrial western society. As inversely Tobacco, over time has gotten back at same society by killing many times over the entire pre-Columbian population.

Erich



Erich J. Knight
Shenandoah Gardens
E-mail: [email protected]
(540) 289-9750

[Ludi]

I don't believe in "this is the only solution" solutions, personally. But if this works for you, that's great.

Erich, How many acres do you have currently under this form of cultivation?

Do any of those articles contain a "how to" for the farmer, or can you post a brief primer yourself? Thanks.

[kjmclark]

You know, we tried putting charcoal in a few of our garden plots this year. I bought about a hundred pounds of cheap charcoal briquets, soaked them till they broke down to a slurry, and put them in our garden plots. We also did a soil test and discovered that sulphate of potash would help immensely. We did both, so I can't say which made what difference, but the plots with the charcoal were *extremely* productive this year.

The best example was our green pepper plot. We haven't been able to grow green peppers worth a darn, since we're in Michigan, with a relatively short summer growing season. Also, our soil is glacial till with a pH of around 7.8. Our pepper plants this year were more like 4.5' tall bushes than the 1.5' scraggly things we usually get. We harvested about a bushel and a half of peppers off those five plants (hard to know, since our kids were out there every day eating them like apples!) I think I'll work in more charcoal next season!

[bart]

Thanks for the links, Erich.

If I remember correctly, the Loma Preta techniques were supposed to be much more effective for soils in the tropics, as opposed to temperate climates.

I think that Loma Preta and soil ecology in general are perhaps the most important things on which to do research.

Bart

[erich]

Hi All:

Ludi:

1 "I don't believe in "this is the only solution" solutions,"
I agree.... but of all the solutions I've seen, short of a silver bullet like Fusion or Nano-tech Solar/Thermo-electric, This integrated energy strategy offered by Terra Preta Soil technology may provide the only path to sustain our agricultural and fossil fueled power
structure without climate degradation, A wholistic approach make winners out of all the many parties involved.

2 "under this form of cultivation? "

None yet, been searching for bulk sources,
I just started checking on the availability of Agricultural grade charcoal, ( dust to 1/2 inch,
high lignin feed stock, 4%- 7% moisture, and the lower the cook temperature the better.)
I can only find it in Missouri, a 22 ton trailer , delivered to me in Harrisonburg, Virginia, @ $225/ton. In Missouri @ $125/ton

Kingsford Charcoal, may occasionally at their retorts in West VA , over produce for their bricket manufacture use and may have loads available.

A.M. Leonard , a landscape supplier has 50 lb bags for $70

The Best small scale supply is the grommet "Natural Charcoals", no binders, chemicals, or coal, you do have to grind it up.

The low cook tempts ( 400-700 F) I understand to be important because what is not completely pyrolysised helps the microorganisms populate the small spaces in the char

Brickets are cooked 1500 F

Orchid growers use 20% char in the medium for Lady slippers


Bart: "more effective for soils in the tropics,"

Yes .......because of rainfall and growth rates, but the results of the work in Georgia and japan show the same tripling of yields after three years.


I am a landscape design/builder, with other interest in Bio-fuels. I found this Terra Preta work a few months ago and have been posting it around to science forums, local academics, soil science people, local farmers, and authors of relevant news stories.

[bart]

Erich & others interested in soils....

Consider writing an article for "The Permaculture Activist" or Energy Bulletin (energybulletin.net). No pay, but it helps to get the word out.

I wrote an article on Soil Ecology for the Autumn 06 issue of the Permaculture Activist which I will be posting soon on Energy Bulletin.

Bart
editors AT energybulletin DOT net

[Frank]

Very interesting - thanks for the links.

[Ludi]

I guess I can try to learn how to make charcoal. Used to be an industry around here about 100 years ago.

[buffy]

The yahoo group on organic gardening I'm on had a huge discussion on this. I will see if they have any of the info. stored. I am planning on using the trees that we are clearing off my 14 acres to make charcoal. I need to do some research on the exact process. Thanks for the links!!! I have lots of reading to do!

[erich]

WOW.............This is the first I've seen of a pyrolysis process like Dr. Danny Day's on the market:

http://www.bestenergies.com/companies/b ... lysis.html

[erich]

I spoke with the author of a Terra Preta (TP) story in Solar Today, Ron Larson ,
http://www.solartoday.org/2006/nov_d...CornerND06.pdf
he said he spoke with a major National Geographic editor, who is preparing a big article on TP. but Doesn't know when it will be out.


Also:
In E. O. Wilson's "The Future of Life" he opens the book with a letter to Thoreau updating him on our current understanding of the nature of the ecology of the soils at Walden Pond.


" These arthropods are the giants of the microcosm (if you will allow me to continue what has turned into a short lecture). Creatures their size are present in dozens-hundreds, if an ant or termite colony is presents. But these are comparatively trivial numbers. If you focus down by a power of ten in size, enough to pick out animals barely visible to the naked eye, the numbers jump to thousands. Nematode and enchytraied pot worms, mites, springtails, pauropods, diplurans, symphylans, and tardigrades seethe in the underground. Scattered out on a white ground cloth, each crawling speck becomes a full-blown animal. Together they are far more striking and divers in appearance than snakes, mice, sparrows, and all the other vertebrates hereabouts combined. Their home is a labyrinth of miniature caves and walls of rotting vegetable debris cross-strung with ten yards of fungal threads. And they are just the surface of the fauna and flora at our feet. Keep going, keep magnifying until the eye penetrates microscopic water films on grains of sand, and there you will find ten billion bacteria in a thimbleful of soil and frass. You will have reached the energy base of the decomposer world as we understand it 150 years after you sojourn in Walden Woods."



Certainly there remains much work to just characterize all the estimated 1000 species of microbes found in a pinch of soil, and Wilson concludes at the end of the prolog that
"Now it is up to us to summon a more encompassing wisdom."

I wonder what the soil biome was REALLY like before the cutting and charcoaling of the virgin east coast forest, my guess is that now we see a severely diminished community, and that only very recent Ag practices like no-till have helped to rebuild it.

I found this study in this TP forum :http://forums.hypography.com/earth-s...-preta-26.html

First-ever estimate of total bacteria on earth
http://www.sdearthtimes.com/et0998/et0998s8.html

[erich]

I am a landscape design/builder in the Shenandoah Valley. I found the Terra Preta work a few months ago and have been posting it around to science forums, local academics, soil science people, local farmers, and authors of relevant news stories.

I was an early adaptor of mycorrhiza inoculants , Hydro-gels , and over the years supported composting operations of local poultry/dairy farmers and of composted bio-solids of the local waste treatment plant.

The old saw of "Feeding the soil and not the plants" is so intrinsic of TP I had to get onboard. Actually it's more like " Feeding , housing, and water & sewage system for the Soil not the plants"

My research focus is now on Bio-Fuel and carbon sequestration issues for sustainable agriculture incorporating carbon-negative, closed-loop pyrolysis systems. However this work has lead to nanomaterial research in energy production.
Both Nano-Solar PV, Solar H2 production, and Bioreactor H2 production. Another area of interest are new quantum tunneling chip designs for direct conversion of heat to electricity.



Man Must Master the Carbon Cycle:

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 charcoaling of the virgin east coast forest, my guess is that now we see a severely diminished community, and that only very recent Ag practices like no-till have started helped to rebuild it. It makes implementing Terra Preta soil technology like an act of penitence, returning misplaced carbon.

http://www.computare.org/Support%20docu ... 006_05.htm




This is a prescription from Dr. Danny Day at GIT, for what we can do to promote Terra Preta Soil Technology:

" A global Manhattan project of
climate change.
What can you do? Read up on terra preta (some of the published works
made a part of the above patent application), look at references in
the Eprida website or convince yourself by testing. Grow your favorite
plant in two pots, one with 1/3 wood charcoal (soak this in fertilizer
for several days), 1/3 sand and 1/3 available soil. Plant the other
with your normal method for potting plants. Fertilize and watch them
grow. Watch it for three seasons and note the differences. (Many have
noted their best results in the second year as microbial populations
increase) Alternately, use a microbe/fungi inoculation to speed the
response.

Then tell everyone you know.Even if we can't stop avoid the climate
shift we will begun to build an awareness of a solution. If we broaden
the understanding that we can produce carbon negative fuels, scrub
fossil fuel exhaust of pollutants and C02, reverse the effect of
mining our soil, depleting soil carbon, trace minerals and losing
agricultural productivity then we will effect many generations to
come. In our lifetime, a 2000-year-old secret is being reborn and its
timeliness could never have been more appropriate. It now up to this
generation to embrace a plan to work with nature to restore lost soil
carbon and rebuild the incredible life at work in our soils. Working
together, we can achieve the possible."


Erich J. Knight