erich

Pioneering works in biochar research, Japan Abstract In Asian countries, people have a long history of using rice husk charcoal or wood ash as an agricultural soil amendment, but evidence of this has been long obscured. Since the 1980s, microbiological studies, mainly on symbiotic organisms, have been performed in Japan. Charcoal is a porous material with high water and air retention capacities and high alkalinity. Therefore, it stimulates root growth and enhances the infection of various symbiotic microbes to plant partners. The use of carbonised materials in agriculture, forestry, and construction will contribute to the sustainability of crop production, soil conservation, and carbon sequestration. Biochar-related research accumulated mainly in Japan is reviewed. CSIRO PUBLISHING - Soil Research Ectomycorrhizal fungi and N2O production by MT Prendergast-MillerA - 2010 (attached) 1381.pdf

[6] The Ag Soil Carbon Standard The Ag Soil Carbon Sequestration Standards; approved by the USDA & EPA. Reviewed by both Congressional Ag Committees, who have asked for expansion of this Soil Carbon Standard to ISO status, the application was denied under the USDA ISO Guide 65 Program, it is now in rewrite for resubmission. I savor the idea that the whole world could be on the same soil carbon page and get farmers payed for their good soil-C works. Read over the work so far; http://www.novecta.com/documents/Carbon-Standard.pdf Biochar can even accelerate Dr. Hansen's new plan for 100 GtC of afforestation, through utilizing this substantial new addition to today's land-based NPP of about 60 GtC/yr and Biochar allows the soil food web to build much more recalcitrant organic carbon, (living biomass & Glomalins) in addition to the carbon in the biochar. "The Case for Young People and Nature: A Path to a Healthy, Natural, Prosperous Future". http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/2011/20110505_CaseForYoungPeople.pdf Remote Sensing; NASA’s EO-1 hyperspectral imagery data has been used to discern Amazonian black earth, or Terra Preta soils. The full complement of earth sensing satellites, using multiple proxy measurements of soil moisture to 3 feet depth, temperature & density , even reading GHG emissions, Dead & Alive biomass from the tree tops down at 1 hectare resolutions when the Orbital Carbon Observer 2 is aloft in 2013. NASA’s Space Archaeology; $364K Terra Preta Program archaeology excavations,archaeology excavation,archaeology,archaeologist,Museums,Egyptology Archaeology Excavations: Time Traveling Via Satellite Sowing Seeds With New Agricultural Carbon Accounting Tool Carbon dioxide emissions from agricultural activity in the United States can now be tracked with unprecedented resolution because of a method developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory team led by Tristram West. Sowing seeds with new agricultural carbon accounting tool The Rapid Assessment of Carbon Project, Providing a Baseline Soil Carbon Survey is 60% complete NRCS Soils Website: NRCS Soils Soils Saves Seas, The new trump card in climate change will be ocean acidity, the new science now shows a simple direct linear relationship between the CO2 levels & acidity, building soil Carbon is the simple solution. [7] Secretary Clinton Makes a big Announcement with The Global Stove Initiative; State Dept. Release; 100 million clean-burning stoves in kitchens around the world. Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves: The United States Commitment By the Numbers Biochar Work in Nine Developing Countries: Biochar Work in Developing Countries: the 9 Country Projects | International Biochar Initiative World Bank Study: The survey data from 150 biochar projects located in 38 developing countries is available now on the IBI website at: http://www.biochar-international.org/sites/default/files/IBI_Survey_5-11-11_online.pdf. The IBI now has 33 biochar affiliates around the world -- including in China, India, Japan UK, US, Australia, Korea, Canada, Italy and Israel. Note also that our Japanese colleagues in the Japan Biochar Association have a very long tradition of biochar use and have been developing "modern methods" over the last thirty years. A governmental act officially acknowledged charcoal as a "soil ameliorator" back in 1988 and have completed work using Biochar as an in situ sorbent of Cd, and starting work on heavy metal radio-isotopes. PRO-NATURA INTERNATIONAL has the largest numbers of agroforestry soil-C & Biochar projects. Certainly the largest NGO, across the global south. They are very sensitive in both design and co-opting local social values for creating self perpetuated systems. Like the Exponential growth of biologic systems. http://pronatura.org/index.php The Biochar Fund has doubled subsistence farmer's incomes; Exceptional results from biochar experiment in Cameroon The broad smiles of 1500 subsistence farmers say it all, that , and the size of the Biochar corn root balls Exceptional Results from Biochar Experiment in Cameroon | International Biochar Initiative Bi-National Border Consortium Initiative, Arturo Velez is developing this Agave-Derived Biofuels creation of a Bi-National Border Consortium to foster large-scale use of agave as an energy crop. Government agencies, private initiative, farmers/ranchers/foresters associations, academia/researchers, NGO and entrepreneurs are welcome to participate. He has contacted Soll Sussman, Coordinator of the Border Energy Forum, as well as the National Coordinators of the Bor*der 2012 Binational Environmental Program. The Western US States produce only ~0.3% of the total USA biomass production, but by planting 25 million hectares of agave on marginal dryland, these States could produce 1.6+ Billion tonnes of dry biomass every year, the same amount the whole US currently produces. Charcolat:Cocao growers in Belize; A fresh solution to the challenge of climate change. Biochar and carbon credits, biochar projects

[1] The Anthropogenic Greenhouse Era Began Thousands of Years Ago SpringerLink - Climatic Change, Volume 61, Number 3 The Columbian encounter led to terrestrial biospheric carbon sequestration on the order of 2 to 5 GtC Climate Forcing. The Columbian Encounter and the Little Ice Age: Abrupt Land Use Change, Fire, and Greenhouse Forcing - Annals of the Association of American Geographers http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all?content=10.1080/00045608.2010.50243 [2] FAO on Conservation Agricultural: "In general, soil carbon sequestration during the first decade of adoption of best conservation agricultural practices is 1.8 tons CO2 per hectare per year. On 5 billion hectares of agricultural land, this could represent one-third of the current annual global emission of CO2 from the burning of fossil fuels (i.e., 27 Pg CO2 per year)." http://www.fao.org/ag/ca/doc/CA_SSC_Overview.pdf Adding just 1 Ton of Biochar per hectare, (800 lbs / acre), would cover 100% Current Annual Fossil CO2 Emissions. "Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Potential of Agricultural Land Management in the United States: A Synthesis of the Literature" An extensive scientific literature review providing a side-by-side comparison of the biophysical greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation potential of more than 40 agricultural land management activities in the United States. Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Potential of Agricultural Land Management in the United States: A Synthesis of the Literature (SECOND EDITION) — Nicholas Institute [3] Dr. Mario Molina, PNAS Report on Reducing abrupt climate change; Reducing abrupt climate change risk using the Montreal Protocol and other regulatory actions to complement cuts in CO2 emissions Recent NATURE STUDY; Sustainable Biochar to Mitigate Global Climate Change Sustainable biochar to mitigate global climate change : Nature Communications : Nature Publishing Group The future of biochar - Project Rainbow Bee Eater The future of biochar - Project Rainbow Bee Eater (Science Alert) USDA, looking at heavy metals; ARS Research Turns Poultry Waste into Toxin-grabbing Char The Ultimate Trash To Treasure: ARS Research Turns Poultry Waste into Toxin-grabbing Char The in situ remediation of a vast variety of toxic agents in soils and sediments. Biochar Sorption of Contaminants; Agriculture, Forestry, Soil Science and Environment [4] Both the Organic and Agricultural chemical schools of soil science recognize Biochar as a powerful tool to foster biodiversity and nitrogen efficiency in soils. Recent work by C. Steiner, at U of GA, showing a 52% reduction of NH3 loss when char is used as a composting accelerator. This will have profound value added consequences for the commercial composting industry by reduction of their GHG emissions and the sale of compost as an organic nitrogen fertilizer. http://www.ibi2010.org/wp-content/uploads/BiocharPoultrySteiner.pdf Biochar effects on soil biota –Areview Soil Biology and Biochemistry journal, a review of international work by Lehmann & Janice Thies; Biochar effects on soil biota ? A review | International Biochar Initiative The NC Farm Center has large scale field application trials encompassing 16 acres on two farms in southeastern North Carolina. The North Carolina Farm Center for Innovation and Sustainability: Setting up Large Scale Biochar Field Trials | International Biochar Initiative Virginia Tech is in their 6 th year of field trials with the Carbon Char Group's "CharGrow" formulated bagged product. A Biological Tool for Reducing Input Costs | East Coast Compost [5] The production of fossil fuel free ammonia & char from biomass (SynGest, SynGest: BioAmmonia from Biomass ) Many third generation companies are aiming for Drop-in, or fungible fuels. A leader in this sector, supported by GE, Google & Conoco is CoolPlanet Biofuels CoolPlanetBioFuels | Home Farm Fossil Fuel 7% Solution; Their results also suggest that it could take anywhere from 50 to 70 acres for a farmer with 1,000 acres and an onsite crusher and biodiesel facility to grow enough canola to produce the fuel needed to run on-farm operations. Advancing biocrop alternatives in the Pacific Northwest

Dear ArbTalk, This recent paper by Dr. Christoph Steiner is the single most comprehensive source for understanding biochars potential. All the great Soil Organic Material scientist are cited, and Bill Ruddiman on Ag history. http://www.forclime.org/images/stories/2011_Biochar-Mitigation_of_climate_change_and_soil_restoration.pdf The text, papers and articles I cite of my CEC talk; The Establishment of Soil Carbon as the Universal Measure of Sustainability The Paleoclimate Record shows agricultural-geo-engineering is responsible for 2/3rds of our excess greenhouse gases. The unintended consequence, the flowering of our civilization. Our science has now realized these consequences and has developed a more encompassing wisdom. Wise land management, afforestation and the thermal conversion of biomass can build back our soil carbon. Pyrolysis, Gasification and Hydro-Thermal Carbonization are known biofuel technologies, What is new are the concomitant benefits of biochars for Soil Carbon Sequestration; building soil biodiversity & nitrogen efficiency, for in situ remediation of toxic agents, and, as a feed supplement cutting the carbon foot print of livestock. Modern systems are closed-loop with no significant emissions. The general life cycle analysis is: every 1 ton of biomass yields 1/3 ton Biochar equal to 1 ton CO2e, plus biofuels equal to 1MWh exported electricity, so each energy cycle is 1/3 carbon negative. [1] [2] [3] Beyond Rectifying the Carbon Cycle; Biochar systems Integrate nutrient management, serving the same healing function for the Nitrogen and Phosphorous Cycles. A 50% reduction of NH3 loss when composting. Ag manure char absorbs phosphorus for nutrient credit income, CHP, Biomass Crop & energy grants and when carbon comes to account, another big credit. The compounding soil benefits; reduced nitrogen loss & soil Nitrous-oxide emissions and a 17% increased water efficiency are documented in trials across soil types and climates. The production of ammonia and char from biomass and other third generation companies aiming for drop-in fuels, can free agriculture from fossil energy. [4] [5] The Agricultural Soil Carbon Sequestration Standards are the royal road for the GHG Mitigation; This stakeholder effort with the USDA & EPA, Reviewed by both Congressional Ag Committees, who asked for expansion to ISO status, the goal now is to get the world on the same soil carbon page. [6] Economic at all Scales; Local economic stimulus is at all scales of development, from the Global Clean Cook Stove Initiative, to base load manure systems, to industrial biomass power production. Replacing "Three Stone" stoves with biomass stoves, the health effects equal the eradication of Malaria & AIDs combined. Delivering carbon credits to developing countries would further economic stimulus. [7] Given the lack of leadership in pricing carbon, companies are taking charge. WalMart is sourcing local produce, training small farmers and presenting bold leadership with their Sustainability Index Program. Vendors now must supply full cradle-to-cradle life cycle analysis. They are now crunching that data to formulate true carbon footprint labeling, empowering consumer choice. The photosynthetic "capture" collectors are up and running all around us, the "storage" sink is in operation just under our feet, conversion reactor are the only infrastructure we need to build out. Carbon, as the center of life, has high value to recapitalize our soils. Yielding nutrient dense foods and Biofuels, Paying Premiums of pollution abatement and toxic remediation and the growing Dividend created by the increasing biomass of a thriving soil community. Since we have filled the air , filling the seas to full, soil is the only beneficial place left. Carbon to the Soil, the only ubiquitous and economic place to put it. Thank you for your efforts. NEXT POST the list of links;

My only credentials are what I post, and the gardens I've grown, the network of credentialed folks who disagree with your judgement. I at least I thought you would appreciate Dr. Hansen's plan for the biosphere, for the sheer scale of afforestation, .....this is a Tree forum after all. Also... Dr. Molina, ya know his Nobel was for probably the greatest success story of environmental science, the Ozone hole is on the mend. So this simple gardener, landscape designer, avid Google scholar and for the last 6 years passionate about building soil carbon will tomorrow leave for Montreal. Hopefully the ears of Lisa Jackson, Mr. Juan Rafael Elvira Quesada and Peter Kent will not be as hard as yours. The Executive Director of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, Commission for Environmental Cooperation has asked me to speak on biochar with the top three environmental officials of north America. CEC: 2011 CEC Council session and JPAC Public Forum The CEC is basically a mandated watchdog for environmental consequences of the NAFTA trade agreement. Sharing successes and providing a forum to point out failures in regulations & enforcement commitments under the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC). In their words to prevent a "race to the bottom" on environmental law enforcement. I got the #7, of 9 speaker slots, and one of only two Americans, Sheila Davis of the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition. other topics; tri-lateral action to protect pollinators in North America. David Suzuki Foundation; protecting green belts around urban areas and ecological services The Mario Molina Center; Green Building tri-lateral grasslands management I will be speaking on: The Establishment of Soil Carbon as the Universal Measure of Sustainability I'll be glad to post the many papers and links on best practices I've filtered from top schools & government sources...NASA, USGS, USDA........if you stop being so dismissive. Cheers, Erich J. Knight

Yes, the soil food web is vastly under studied, and yes particularly a lack of forest work. I see chars as a bridging tool for the organic and chemical schools of soil science. both recognize Biochar as a powerful tool to foster biodiversity and nitrogen efficiency in soils. The endorsements of Dr. Vandana Shiva, Dr. Elaine Engham at Rodale Institute & Paul Stamets and the dozens of university research programs attest to this. Along with Dr. Jim Hansen at NASA, Dr. James Lovelock, Nobel laureates; Al Gore and Dr. Mario Molina, Politicians; Tony Blair, Secretaries Salazar & Vilsack, Environmentalist; Tim Flannery, Bill McKibben, Richard Branson & his Carbon War Room. Biochar can even accelerate Dr. Hansen's new 100 GtC of afforestation plan, through utilizing this substantial new addition to today's land-based NPP of about 60 GtC/yr and Biochar allows the soil food web to build much more recalcitrant organic carbon, (living biomass & Glomalins) in addition to the carbon in the biochar. "The Case for Young People and Nature: A Path to a Healthy, Natural, Prosperous Future". http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/2011/20110505_CaseForYoungPeople.pdf Dr. Mario Molina, PNAS Report on Reducing abrupt climate change; http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2009/10/09/0902568106.full.pdf+html The IBI now has 33 biochar affiliates around the world -- including in China, India, Japan UK, US, Australia, Korea, Canada, Italy and Israel. Note also that our Japanese colleagues in the Japan Biochar Association have a very long tradition of biochar use and have been developing "modern methods" over the last thirty years. A governmental act officially acknowledged charcoal as a "soil ameliorator" back in 1988 and have completed work using Biochar as an in situ sorbent of Cd, and starting work on heavy metal radio-isotopes remediation. PRO-NATURA INTERNATIONAL has the largest numbers of agroforestry soil-C & Biochar projects. Certainly the largest NGO, across the global south. They are very sensitive in both design and co-opting local social values for creating self perpetuated systems. Like the Exponential growth of biologic systems. http://pronatura.org/index.php The Biochar Fund has doubled subsistence farmer's incomes; Exceptional results from biochar experiment in Cameroon The broad smiles of 1500 subsistence farmers say it all, that , and the size of the Biochar corn root balls Exceptional Results from Biochar Experiment in Cameroon | International Biochar Initiative I am an ornamental gardener, deeply into composting, with interest in renewable energy, I started researching char 5 years ago, networking practitioners & researchers. There is great debate on the mechanisms but great consistency in the increased yields in temperate soils and tropical soils, respectively. Beyond Rectifying the Carbon Cycle; Biochar systems Integrate nutrient management serving the same healing function for the Nitrogen & Phosphorous Cycles. A 50% reduction of NH3 loss when composting. http://www.ibi2010.org/wp-content/uploads/BiocharPoultrySteiner.pdf Ag manure char absorbs phosphorus for nutrient credit income, CHP, Biomass Crop & energy grants and when carbon comes to account that is another big credit. The balance of concomitant soil benefits; reduced De-nitrification, soil N20 emissions and a 17% increased water efficiency are documented in trials across soil types & climates. The production of ammonia and char from biomass SynGest, SynGest: BioAmmonia from Biomass and other third generation companies aiming for drop-in fuels, can free agriculture from fossil energy. A leader in this sector, supported by GE, Google & Conoco is CoolPlanet Biofuels CoolPlanetBioFuels | Home The Paleoclimate Record shows agricultural geo-engineering is responsible for 2/3rds of our excess greenhouse gases. This soil carbon, converted to GHGs, began a slow stable warming that now accelerates with burning of fossil fuel. The unintended consequence has been the flowering of our civilization. Our science has now realized these consequences and has developed a more encompassing wisdom. To fix the consequences of the excess fossil carbon, we must look to: wise land management, Conservation Agriculture, afforestation and the pathways for the thermal conversion of biomass by Pyrolysis, Gasification and Hydro-Thermal Carbonization for returning carbon to soils.

Go to the Japan Biochar Association; http://www.geocities.jp/yasizato/pioneer.htm 2. Utilization in Forestry and Revegetation 1) Rehabilitation and reforestation of trees and pine forest by charcoal and mycorrhiza In 1980, Ogawa et al. (38) tried to apply the bark charcoal powders with a small amount of chemical fertilizers and succeeded to promote the growth of pine, Pinus thunbergii and cultivate the mycorrhizal fungi, Rhizopogon rubescens which is a dominant mycorrhizal species in the young stand with infertile basic sand Some chemical fertilizers, urea, ammonium sulfate, super lime phosphate and synthetic chemical fertilizer, were added to bark charcoal powder with 0.1-1.0% (W / W) respectively. These materials were buried into the trenches 30 cm in depth and width after cutting the roots and then covered with sand. The regenerated fresh roots grew inside the charcoal layers vigorously after 3 months and the mushrooms appeared abundantly along the trenches 9 months later. After a year, the amounts of pine root and mycorrhiza increased considerably in the charcoal layers. In addition, the growth of shoots and the color of needles became better than before treatment. These apparent effects probably resulted from the regeneration of roots and the formation of mycorrhiza. It might be caused from the enhanced nutrient uptake and the water absorption through mycorrhiza. The water content in the charcoal was remarkably higher and it was kept at 40 % even in mid summer comparing with 5 % outside the charcoal layer (39). After publishing the experiment results, similar phenomena were confirmed by many researchers in local forest experiment stations, because it is an edible mushroom in Japan. For example, Hirasa (40) devised the growing method of seedling with the mycorrhiza and the field cultivation method. The same method has been widely accepted by professional gardeners and applied to various kinds of tree species to revive famous old trees in shrines, temples and parks. Usually the charcoal powder, maximum 1 cm in diameter, has been buried in trenchs or holes together with a small amount of phosphate fertilizer and the spores of suitable mycorrhizal fungi to host plant. Sometimes the root system was exposed removing top soil and covered by charcoal powder as well. Also in nurseries, the charcoal fertilizer is mixed with pot soil to improve soil properties and inoculate the mycorrhizal fungi (41). Both pine wilting disease by the insect and nematode and oak wilting by the insect and fungi have been spreading mainly in western Japan for several decades, and now it has become very serious problems in forestry. Pinus densiflora forest in low land has mostly disappeared in the southwest and reaches to northern most area of Honshu. Pinus thunbergii forest which had been planted along the seacoast to prevent natural disasters was also declining. Therefore, the practical methods of the rehabilitation and reforestation of pine forest have been eagerly expected in rural areas. Mycorrhiza formation is essential to Pinus species which generate the forests as a pioneer plant at dry sites with infertile soil. These fungi also prefer to propagate in dry and infertile soil conditions. Therefore, it has been well known through the ecological study of pine forest (2) that the man-made pine forest should be kept at the primary stage of plant succession by cutting all of under shrubs and raking out the litter layer. M. Ogawa proposed to rehabilitate and reforest the coastal pine forest using charcoal and mycorrhizal fungi publishing a monograph (41). In the established forest, the same methods described previously have been applied. Meanwhile, in a place from which all of pine tree were destroyed, the under shrubs and top soil must be completely removed before planting. Then pine seedlings with the inoculated mycorrhizal fungi, Rhizopogon, Pithoritus, Suillus species, are planted together with the charcoal powder. The survival rates of these seedlings were much higher than that without mycorrhiza and charcoal. As such a trial, growing tree and burying charcoal, seems to be one of the practical methods for carbon sequestration, Ogawa M. and his colleagues have promoted the movement to make revive “White Sand and Green Pine” which is one of the symbolic scenery of Japan islands in order to contribute the prevention of natural disasters and the countermeasure for global warming. 2) Rehabilitation of tropical rain forest and forestation in semiarid region M. Ogawa who was working in the rehabilitation project of tropical rain forest in 1989 found that a dominant species, Dipterocarpaceae, forms the ectomycorrhiza with several fungal species among which Scleroderma columnare enhanced the seedling growth efficiently in nursery. He tested the effect of charcoal powder on the growth of Shorea species and found that the small amount of charcoal 2 % in volume was effective to stimulate the mycorrhizal formation and the growth (42). Kikuti J. and M. Ogawa (43) devised the practical inoculation method in which several saplings with the mycorrhiza were planted inside the nursery beds and the pots were set under the canopy. By this method the mycelium of mycorrhizal fungi penetrates through holes of the pot and naturally infected. Mori et al. (44) found rice husk charcoal is also effective and established the more convenient method. Rice husk charcoal is not so harmful even if it was added excessively. The nursery technique to inoculate the mycorrhizal fungi with charcoal was also used in the forestation project of pine in northern China and obtained successful results (45). The material such as charcoal which has higher water holding capacity is efficient to stimulate the rooting and to supply water to the root through mycorrhiza even under severe dry condition. It can be expected the charcoal will be used in dry land farming like date palm plantation and the revegetation to stop desertification (46).