Slash and Char as Alternative to Slash and Burn

soil charcoal amendments maintain soil fertility and establish a carbon sink

Author: Steiner, Christoph Bayreuth, 06. December 2007 pages: 190 edition: 1 language: EN ISBN-10: 3867274444 ISBN-13: 9783867274449 allocated areas: Chemie | Geowissenschaften category: Dissertation source of supply Print Version 27,00 € 25.65 in the shopping basket eBook (5401.9 kB) 27 in the shopping basket

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Description

The extraordinary fertility of manmade Terra Preta soils in the Brazilian Amazon provided the incentive to study the effects of soil charcoal amendments on soil fertility, nutrient cycling, and soil biology.

The existence of Terra Preta suggests that tropical soils, which are notorious for being infertile, can be greatly improved. The agricultural produces charcoal out of fallow vegetation instead of converting it to carbon dioxide through burning. Slash and char improves soil quality by transferring organic carbon into recalcitrant soil organic matter pools. This newly described agricultural practice has important implications for the earth’s carbon budget and sustainability in tropical agriculture.