Black Gold

Corn & Soybean Digest
Nov 30, 2008 12:00 PM, By Susan Winsor

What makes amazing soil amazing? High organic matter, comprised largely of carbon.
The most agriculturally productive soils in the world, Mollisols, (found, for example, in Iowa and Ukraine) contain up to 3.3% carbon. Carbon is black gold.

Yet, agricultural soils have lost, on average, half of their carbon due to intensive cultivation and other degradations of human origin, says Bruno Glaser, soil physics department, University of Bayreuth, Germany.

Scientists are studying ancient Amazonian soils to learn how to restore carbon to soils in the form of biomass charcoal — biochar. This charred waste can do double duty as a soil amendment, concentrated carbon sequesterer, and a critical link between biofuels and sustainable farming practices.

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