Edaphology

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

Gary Jones geeks on grass-fed beef, soil, and biochar at garyjones.org. He writes much worth repeating, and I especially appreciate his unwavering perspective on biochar: environment and food are nonessential sideshows, biochar is about the soil.

A ubiquitous issue with irrigation in arid areas is the inevitable build-up of salts in the soil. Applying water in excess of crop use is needed to move salts down into the profile, but that becomes impractical under drought conditions. 

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.

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?

Researchers from U. of Wisconsin–Green Bay have published what must be the most extensive evaluation of microbial response to charcoal application in soils from managed temperate systems. Insights abound. Lacking are any insight into the proportion of the effect to allocate to the charcoal-C relative to the reactive effects of the ash component.

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:

Interest in biochar has jumped in the last few month. Oliver Morton's blog, related his book "Eating The Sun", has a detailed post on the intensifying exchange among proponents, critics, and observers. It points to a bevy of sources relating to biochars advancing stature, including links to Gary's excellent observations.

Imagine an army of school children peeling back the sod, fizz testing with vinegar, perc testing, drenching the soil with mustard, and more, and logging it all onto an interactive website. Brilliant!

When it comes to storing carbon, reduced tillage may not be effective on clayey soils. Reduced tillage can result in lower subsoil carbon storage than in tilled fields.

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

TO: All Cooperators of the National Cooperative Soil Survey

Oxisols, ultisols and spodosols would increase in extent with increased soil weathering. But could it also mean lower plant disease, and more nutritious crops?

Edaphology (from Greek ἔδαφος, edaphos, "ground"; and -λογία, -logia) is one of two main divisions of soil science, the other being pedology. Edaphology is concerned with the influence of soils on living things, particularly plants. The term is also applied to the study of how soil influences man's use of land for plant growth as well as man's overall use of the land. General subfields within edaphology are agricultural soil science (known by the term agrology in some parts of the world) and environmental soil science.