Latin America

Sustainable Technology: Biochar
Julie Major, Workshop presented to Sustainable Harvest International,Honduras, January 2008

Reported in La Cosecha (The Harvest), Sustainable Harvest International newsletter, Spring 2008, p. 4.

Black is the New Green: SHI Field Staff Learn the Benefits of Biochar for Agriculture

During the annual Board and staff meeting held in January in Honduras, field staff from Honduras, Nicaragua, Belize and Panama attended a workshop presented by Julie Major of Cornell University on managing soils with biochar. Biochar can be made simply and cheaply from any organic material, just by piling it, covering it up with soil to exclude air and setting it on fire. During the workshop biochar was made from rice hulls and pieces of pine wood for demonstration, but any crop residue or plant waste can be used to make biochar, such as coffee pulp, sawdust, sugarcane bagasse, etc.

Sustainable Harvest International
http://www.sustainableharvest.org/

Julie Major, Cornell University
http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/jm322/

Charcoal and Salicylic Acid
Nikolaus Foidl, Bolivia, February 6, 2008

Dear All , some photos.
First the difference between Charcoal and non Charcoal was nearly 60 cm in height, then after correcting soil minerals and applying Salicylic acid the difference vanished and the plants started really to grow.The maize started to get up to 5 cobs build on every shank in every axle. Could harvest now up to 4 fully developed cobs per plant in the no charcoal and in the charcoal plot. No measurable difference between the two areas.Will repeat those trials to get to the bottom of it.This time will mill and extract with different acids all minerals from the charcoal prior to the introduction to the soil to see if there is still some growth enhancing effect left in the first stage.( without adding salisylic acid.) Best regards Nikolaus
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Studies of the Compositions of Humic Acids from Amazonian Dark Earth Soils
Etelvino H. Novotny, Eduardo R. de Azevedo, Tito J. Bonagamba, Tony J. F. Cunha, Beta E. Madari, Vinícius de M. Benites, and Michael H.B. Hayes, Environmental Science and Technology, December 8, 2006

Abstract:
The compositions of humic acids (HAs) isolated from cultivated and forested "Terra Preta de Índio" or Amazonian Dark Earth soils (anthropogenic soils) were compared with those from adjacent non-anthropogenic soils (control soils) using elemental and thermogravimetric analyses, and a variety of solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance techniques. The thermogravimetric index, which indicates the molecular thermal resistance, was greater for the anthropogenic soils than for the control soils suggesting polycyclic aromatic components in the former. The cultivated anthropogenic soils were more enriched in C and depleted in H than the anthropogenic soils under forest, as the result of the selective degradation of aliphatic structures and the possible enrichment of H-deficient condensed aromatic structures. The combination of variable amplitude cross-polarization (VACP) and chemical shift anisotropy with total suppression of spinning sidebands experiments with composite pulses could be used to quantify the aromaticity of the HAs from the anthropogenic soils. From principal component analysis, using the VACP spectra, it was possible to separate the different constituents of the HAs, such as the carboxylated aromatic structures, from the anthropogenic soils and plant derived compounds. The data show that the HAs from anthropogenic soils have high contents of aryl and ionisable oxygenated functional groups, and the major functionalities from adjacent control soils are oxygenated functional groups from labile structures (carbohydrates, peptides, and with evidence for lignin structures). The anthropogenic soils HAs can be considered to be more recalcitrant, and with more stable reactive functional groups which may, in part, explain their more sustainable fertility due to the organic matter contribution to the soil cation exchange capacity.

Environ. Sci. Technol., 41 (2), 400 -405, 2007. 10.1021/es060941x S0013-936X(06)00941-2
Web Release Date: December 8, 2006

Authors: Embrapa Solos, R. Jardim Botânico, 1.024, Rio de Janeiro-RJ, Brazil, 22460-000, Chemical and Environmental Sciences, University of Limerick, Ireland, Instituto de Física de São Carlos, Universidade de São Paulo, São Carlos-SP, Brazil, Embrapa Semi-rido Cx.P. 23. Petrolina-PE, Brazil, 56300-970, and Embrapa Arroz e Feijão, Cx.P. 179. Santo Antônio de Gois-GO, Brazil, 75375-000

Terra Preta: Homepage about Anthrohumox in Brazilian Lowland
Gerhard Bechtold, University of Bayreuth/Munchen, Germany, November 2007
Consultant for National (Geo-)Information Systems and Database Setup, for Natural
Resources Assessments


GIS MAP of Terra Preta Sites in the Amazon
Summary of Thesis about Anthrohumox in Brazilian Lowland (2007)


In the Amazon lowland, Oxisol developed in scattered areas to ‘Indian Black Earth’ (Portuguese: ‘ Terra Preta’). High content of C (more than 9%) and ceramics are characteristics. Furthermore, they show weak acidity (but pH not over 6.5), low solum weight and high cation exchange capacity. The very most soil parameters are correlating with the percentage of C.


Terra Preta soil patterns can be found in the Amazon lowland ( map, based on literature research). Visited TP spots in Belterra (close to Santarem) show characteristics about their extension (seldom more than 2 acre), their depth (till about 50 cm with black color of value 3 or lower, in traces till 2-3 m depth) and their transition to the surrounding Oxisols (some few km). Size is correlating with intensity (low value – large areas) and frequency of ceramics in most cases. Due to oxic horizon in the lower Terra Preta, great group ‘Anthrohumox’ is proposed.


There are various theories about their origin. It is proved indeed, that Terra Preta is man made (high phosphate content, ceramics, situation on former village sites). About 1500-2800 years ago the Indios of the area had a strong influence on the Oxisols by their garbage, kitchen, compost and/or mulch ‘farming’ for a couple of hundreds years on their dwelling sites. C14 tests of the samples showed ages of 1780 (+ 270) and of 2260 (+ 280) years, thus dating back to between 800 BC and 500 AD.


Intensive activity of organisms and bioturbation cause a breaking up, a lowering of the solum weight, the loss of some hundred kg soil material per square m and of fine particles (‘only’ 65-80 % clay). High sand content indicates high C content (not in terms relative to other areas). All those characteristics decrease with increasing soil depth.


Strong impact of humic acids react a strong weathering of Si, Al and Fe. Different leaching ratios are discussed in the paper. They show a stronger weathering in the Terra Preta than in the Oxisol (lower Si, higher Al and Fe content). Al occurs mainly as 1:1 mineral (the main parent material), Fe as hematite or –favored by organic material – as goethite (over 70 % Fe d:Fe t).


Strong weathering (Aw climate) causes some characteristics at the depth functions of Si, Al, Fe, but leaching and cristallization is retarded by strong chelation (humic acids complex with metal ions). M o:M d relations quote always high (especially in Al and Mn, less in Fe). Very pronounced peaks of Al o (and of Fe o) are difficult to explain. Illuviation and podzolation seem to be very active. Different chelating groups (M(OH)++ or M(OH)2+) with different stabilities are more reasonable.
Very strong is the influence of the organic material on the content of Mn, Ca, Mg in the upper layers existing a manifold content, compared to the lower horizons, more than 10 times at Ca, due to the exchange sites of the organic substance (high solubility and erosion). At Mg existing fixation in anorganic compounds, e.g. Mg-Al-hydroxydes, at K in mineral interlayers are responsible for the lower percentages of the exchangeable to the total.


The vertical transition to the Oxisol depends on the element: Terra Preta and Oxisol have an almost identical C content at a depth of 1.50 – 2.00 m, an identical solum weight at 2.30 m depth, identical texture only at depths of more than 4 m, identical acidity and Si content at 2 m, Mn and K 40 – 50 cm, Ca and Mg at 1.50 m.


An exceptional profile with nodular laterite concretions (plinthic, plateau laterite) on a slope was analysed. It was found to have high C content and plenty of ceramics (therefore, Terra Preta), but in acidity and exchange capacity (content of K, Ca, Mg) it is more similar to Oxisols. In a different TP profile, burned charcoal induced high C contents and other characteristics of the upper horizons of Terra Preta.


At many elements it is possible to recognize, beside the organic influence, a ‘basic content’ (very low at nutrients) of Ca with 200 – 300 ppm, Mg with 180 – 190 ppm, K with 200 – 300 ppm, K with 50 ppm etc. A melioration by mobilization of these reserves is impossible.


Melioration is imaginable by pH raising (of soil and vegetation), addition of organic substances without fast mineralization and higher bioturbation.


Further research about Terra Preta, surrounding conditions of their development and analytics are described in the paper.

Slash and Char as Alternative to Slash and Burn: soil charcoal amendments maintain soil fertility and establish a carbon sink
Christoph Steiner, www.biochar.org Summary of Dissertation, Faculty of Biology, Chemistry and Geosciences University of Bayreuth, Germany, Institute of Soil Science and Soil Geography, University of Bayreuth, D-95440 Bayreuth, Germany (email: Christoph.Steiner@uni-bayreuth.de)

ABSTRACT

Introduction

Charcoal as Soil Conditioner: Studies in the humid Tropics
Christoph Steiner1, W. G. Teixeira2, J. Lehmann3and W. Zech1, U Georgia TP 2004

Cornell University: Bio-Char Projects 2007

Bio-char Projects

Currently (January 2007) we conduct experiments to evaluate the effects of bio-char on nutrient adsorption, nutrient leaching, water percolation, soil water availability and carbon cycling as well as the stability and mobility of bio-char itself with research in our Ithaca lab, in Colombia, Brazil, Zambia and Kenya.

Long term Effects of manure, charcoal and mineral fertilization on crop production and fertility on a highly weathered Central Amazonian upland soil January 2007
Christoph Steiner · Wenceslau G. Teixeira · Johannes Lehmann ·Thomas Nehls · Jeferson Luis Vasconcelos de Macêdo · Winfried E. H. Blum · Wolfgang Zech

Abstract

Green Charcoal by Pronatura International, France

Two billion people around the world use wood for household energy needs. This contributes significantly to the world's deforestation activities as well as increasing the risk of droughts and desertification. In an attempt to reduce deforestation, Pro-Natura has developed Green-Charcoal.