Agriculture

A concise evaluation of the problems and the practical options involving biosolids.  Conclusion: the cost advantage of making land application work is compelling.  Peak phosphorus, not mentioned in the article, means that land application on cropland will increasingly sort out as the highest and best use for biosolids.

Most livestock producers, soil scientists favor index that considers phosphorus likelihood that it would leave the land.

The prospect of losing water rights is a disincentive to water conservation.

Arsenic contaminated drinking water is a huge problem in Bangladesh. Scott alerts us to the news that the critical source of the contamination has been discovered: ponds excavated to provide material for flood protection.

Prior to the Civil War, native soil fertility was so high it was a "problem" for early Illinois farmers.

How? Several ways, but especially important is that accumulated charcoal, a product of millenia of prairie fires, had stimulated nitrogen fixation. A ready supply of fixed nitrogen supported organic matter accumulation. Released by tillage, organic matter declined and nutrient availability spiked to levels not experienced since.

Fleshing out my previous statements made in support of the need to start gauging the neutralizing power of biochar.

Determining the neutralizing potential of fly ash is standard practice for permitted land application. It should be a standard practice for land application of biochar.

Donald D. Patterson is being buried today in the North Dakota land that was his home for more than half a century. Don, 82, was one of my mentors and a professor at North Dakota State University, Fargo, in the Soil Science Department. Originially from northern Iowa, in the 1950's he was a member of the rugged survey crew that criss-crossed the state producing general soil survey area maps for the Agricultural College. Don was a meticulous soil scientist, and willing to share his in-depth knowledge of the State's soils. He was deeply involved with the professional soil classifiers association of North Dakota, and was instrumental in obtaining the soil classifier registration law in the state. In addition to field research in soil classification, Don's interests turned to land valuation and related important uses of soils information. He will be missed by those whom he selflessly helped and advised.

I found an interesting and informative article about global phosphorus reserves and conservation in Scientific American:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=phosphorus-a-looming-cr...

Morocco is the Saudi Arabia of phosphorus? Reserves in North Carolina?

Biochar is gaining more interest as a tool for improving soil fertility and sequestering carbon in soil. “Environmental celebrities” such as James Lovelock, Tim Flannery and James Hansen have spoken about the “promise of biochar”. But soil scientists, who might find biochar to be pretty exciting stuff, are still poorly aware of it.

The global soil mapping effort aims to update and catalog the world’s soil information accurately within one clearinghouse called GlobalSoilMap.net. V1 magazine editor Matt Ball spoke with the North American coordinator of this effort, Jon Hempel, Co-Director-National Geospatial Development Center, Soil Business Area Analysis Chair at the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in Morgantown, West Virginia.

View transcript of interview at http://www.vector1media.com/dialogue/interview/soil-data-goes-global/

In Good Heart: Soil and the Mystery of Fertility is a documentary currently in production by Deborah Koons Garcia, director of The Future of Food (2004).

There is some very interesting soils research going on to identify the biological underpinnings of nitrogen losses. It is looking at very specific metabolic pathways, and correlating related genomic intensity and diversity to results in site specific soils, biology, and tillage practices. Despite the narrow focus, and limited funding, the research is employing a multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional approach. And as poster David Booth concludes:

Laurens Rademakers, Biochar Fund, reports on his discovery of an apparently ancient Terra Preta tradition in a remote part of Africa.