Limitations of charcoal as an effective carbon sink [View All]

[phantom power]

I was hoping to see confirmation that this would work. Disappointing. I wonder if helped in South America because the Amazon soil is nutrient poor to begin with?

They found that when charcoal was mixed into humus, there was a substantial increase in soil microorganisms (bacteria and fungi). These microbes carry out decomposition of organic matter (carbon) in the soil, and consistent with this, they found that charcoal caused greatly increased losses of native soil organic matter, and soil carbon, for each of the three forest stands. Much of this lost soil carbon would be released as carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. Therefore, while it is true that charcoal represents a long term sink of carbon because of its persistence, this effect is at least partially offset by the capacity of charcoal to greatly promote the loss of that carbon already present in the soil.

http://www.slu.se/?ID=704&Nyheter_id=8497