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It seems that the rich black soil in the Amazon was man-made and has lasted thousands of years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_preta https://en.wikipedia.
by Jenkins2000 5y ago
It seems that the rich black soil in the Amazon was man-made and has lasted thousands of years:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_preta https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_preta
- jbotz 5y agoRight. That's biochar. See my top-level comment. But note that this is not all or most of the soil in the Amazon, by a long shot... the "terra preta da Amazonia" exists in isolated patches where humans had been conducting slash-and-burn agriculture for hundreds of years. Most of the soil of the Amazon region is just like any other topical soil, nutrient and carbon poor.
- onecommentman 5y agoBut biochar establishes the fact that carbon can be (semi-?)sequestered by a sustainable human agricultural process, this scheme has been implemented on a large scale in the past, and similar schemes could be implemented in future ag systems. That’s not a trifecta you hit very often in complex systems of any sort. Upshot: if you are a young scientist/engineer/agronomist/ag economist and want to do real hands-on exploratory science where everybody is in the dumb club, and still make a significant direct middle/long-term difference in the world and its population, soil science could be your ticket. PS: The content of the article is great. The click-bait title is absurd.