10/11/2014

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http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s235/BobbieGS/All%2520Things%2520GREEN/GreenPeople-

1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.myspace.com/kawiboy636&h=325&w=467&sz=21&tbnid=CKOoEO_8DblD9M:&tbnh=92&tbnw=132&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dimages%2Bof%2Bgreen%2Bpeople%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%

3Du&zoom=1&q=images+of+green+people&docid=q1DtvLjWp5hYoM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=lk-CT-mRC8aQiQLompycAw&ved=0CC0Q9QEwAw&dur=266

http://thevividedge.com/page/7/

Be great if people were green [had chlorophyll],

could face the sun and fix atmospheric carbon

to get energy, i.e., food!!!

Forests, Soils and Sustainability

https://www.facebook.com/bluemangroup

COMMENT: This is a topic of several science fiction

stories but hard to do in Seattle during cloudy days!!

• Soil is not DIRT

• Cookbook recipe 101: How to make a soil

• What happens when we disrupt a soil and move it

towards becoming dirt?

• Human health, SOILS and agricultural crops links

• Practice of Geophagy – animals, humans ingesting SOIL

• Why building civilizations needed intensive or industrial

agricultural and why this was bad for SOILS?

• Why do we manage soil carbon, e.g., What does organic

farming have to do with healthier Soils?

• BIO2 – Why too much soil carbon is bad for ecosystems

and human health

• Terra preta – 2,000 year ago experiment to add carbon to

soils in the wet tropics

Today’s Class Outline

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TAKE HOME MESSAGE: Soil is not DIRT!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dor4XvjA8Wo#t=10

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• A pound of dirt

• Some bugs and microbes

• A dash of dead organic materials [OM]

• etc

How about??

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Or Scientifically: Dirt + organisms + OM + … = SOIL

QUESTION? What happens when

we disrupt a soil and move it

towards becoming dirt?

FACT: Agriculture on fertile soil (especially on

floodplains in desert regions of the world)

allowed the first civilizations to become a reality,

e.g., moving beyond being nomadic

ANSWER:

Collapse of the first civilizations with loss of

agricultural production and migration of people

to other locations because unable to feed the

population

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BRIEF JOURNEY INTO THE

PAST

How far back in time do we

have to go to find the roots of

ancient agriculture??http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://mesopotamia.mrdonn.org/meso08.gif&imgrefurl=http://mesopotamia.mrdonn.org/powerpoints.html&h=450

&w=480&sz=53&tbnid=Y9D6CKv0a8ZY6M:&tbnh=90&tbnw=96&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dimages%2Bof%2Bfarming%2Bin%2Bancient%2Bsumeria%2

6tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=images+of+farming+in+ancient+sumeria&docid=RmPEfEXrzTsLzM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=IluCT6rfIImriQL10JWqA

w&ved=0CEAQ9QEwBg&dur=16567

ancient

Mesopotamia,

hanging gardens

Farming

in ancient

Sumeria

First civilization to practice intensive, year-round

agriculture and used basic agricultural techniques, e.g.,

• large-scale cultivation of land

• mono-cropping

• organized irrigation, and

• had specialized labor force to farm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumer

The title "inventors of agriculture" belongs to the Sumerians, starting c. 5500 BCE [~7,000 years ago]

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What did the surplus of storable food

mean for the world’s first great

civilization?

Population didn’t to be nomadic to search

for food or grazing land for their animals

[accumulate excess product for off-season use, or to sell/barter]

More people to build the civilization, e.g.,

greater population density for the same land

area

An extensive, specialized farm-labor force -

division of labor into non-agricultural jobs,

e.g. rise of standing armies, politicians!!

Territorial expansion, conflicts between cities

9http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumer

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BRIEF DETOUR

Where was

agriculture

located and

what made it

initially

successful??

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cities_of_Sumer_(en).svg

Map of Ancient Sumer and its cities

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REMEMBER:

What happened to their

agricultural production??

Salt-affected soils are the 2nd

largest cause of soil degradation

(after erosion)

Salinization

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Egypt developed its civilization

by farming the fertile Nile Valley:

(1)high population density

(2)diversification of labor so a

warrior class could fight &

expand Egypt’s territory

POINT: Demise of Egypt

civilization because fertile

soils needed for agriculture

to feed a larger population

was vulnerable to climate

change

Egypt dependent upon Nile

River agriculture in fertile

floodplain soils

Every year the Nile River began to rise in the

summer, covering the floodplain. But …

•11500 BCE: Too much rain for 500 years -

excessive flooding caused abandonment of

agriculture & return to nomadic existence

[fishing, hunting, gathering]

•3000-2800: Droughts - reduced rainfall by

~1-1.5m or 30% less flow was followed by

widespread unrest and the depopulation of

Nubia

•2250-1950: Droughts - Low inundations,

drying out of Lake Moeris

•1170-1100: Drought - Low inundations

accompanied by decline of the New

Kingdom

But too little rain or too much rain stopped

farming on floodplains in Egypt

Eastern

desertWestern

desert

Agricultural scene from

Ancient Egypt

REPEAT STORY:

Egypt developed their civilization

by farming the fertile Nile Valley

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_agriculture 15

BUT, collapsed when

unable to farm in the

floodplains of the Nile

contributed to famine!!

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Humans are only as

healthy as the

nutrients they get

from the soil via the

food we eat

Every time we

harvest a crop, we

remove soil nutrients

which is why we have

to fertilize intensively

managed agricultural

fields

http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2007/08/01/health/adam/19343FoodLabelGuideforWholeWheatBread.html

Food

producers

recognize

importance

of

nutrients in

FOOD, e.g.

labels &

add

nutrients to

highly

processed

foods

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Whole wheat

bread

Always look at the

serving size

This healthy, whole-

wheat bread is low in fat

and cholesterol

Fiber is a healthy

nutrient,

so you want AT LEAST

100% each day

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Ultimate Geophagy!! Lets go get some salt or clay!!

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The red-and-green macaw eats

clay from exposed river banks,

allowing it to utilize nutrients in

harmful foods

Elephants go into caves to

scrape the cave walls for the

salts the rocks contain in

areas where vegetation is

low in sodium. NOTE –

Kristiina already talked about

this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geophagy

http://geography.about.com/cs/culturalgeography/a/geophagy.htm; http://www.hobotraveler.com/photos/kenya/ruby-roasted-clay_photo.jpg

Class Reading on Geophagy By

Matt Rosenberg

• People around the world eat

clay, dirt or other pieces of the

lithosphere. Commonly found

in Central Africa, South U.S.

• Traditional cultural activity

during pregnancy, religious

ceremonies, or as a remedy

for disease

• Clay ingested in Africa

contains nutrients:

phosphorus, potassium,

magnesium, copper, zinc,

manganese, iron.

What is clay?

CLAY =

• fine-grained, firm earthy

material that is plastic

when wet and hardens

when heated

• consisting primarily of

hydrated silicates of

aluminum

• widely used in making

bricks, tiles, and pottery

Yolen Jeunky sold

mud cookies in Cite

Soleil, Haiti last fall

GEOPHAGY - Africa,

pregnant and lactating

women eat clay for

nutritional intake (during

pregnancy, body requires

20% more nutrients and

50% more during lactation)

Grandma’s

Georgia

White Dirt

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Why building civilizations

needed to practice intensive or

industrial scale agricultural and

why this was bad for SOILS??

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SOME ANSWERS:

Need to feed a larger population from a

smaller land base –while higher crop yields &

accelerated growth rates only possible with

fertilizers/pesticides

Agriculture labor force is small so agriculture

needs to be highly mechanized

Perception economics better with large,

centralized production systems

Unmanaged soils provide nutrients to plants in amounts related to

the soil’s nutrient supply capacity. This supply rate may limit plant

production in the amounts we want, i.e., we don’t grow enough to

feed people. Some solutions to increase food yields are:

GOAL!!

Organic farmIntensive

agriculture farm

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fuel - to power the equipment

fertilizer - natural gas as a hydrogen source for

the Haber-Bosch fertilizer-creation process; Nitrogen,

phosphorus, potassium (acronym NPK) critical factors

in plant growth

synthetic pesticides – control pests on

crops

intensive

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculture25

Petroleum!! Modern agriculture

totally reliant on petroleum. WHY?

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Increase yields & growth rates in

intensive agriculture due to:

1. Mechanized

2. Monocultures – 1 plant species

3. Irrigation

4. Chemical fertilizers & pesticides

(petroleum based)

1

2

34

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QUESTION: Why do we manage soil carbon? Why does Organic

farming produce healthier Soils?

http://www.motherjones.com/files/images/soil.jpg;

https://www.canaanusa.com/images/CFT_pics_hand

s_5_13_1012.jpg

What is the darker

color in the soil??

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Organic farming uses crop rotation, green

manure, compost and biological pest control

Organic

farmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_

farming

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Organic farmining uses fertilizers & pesticides but excludes

or strictly limits use of:

manufactured (synthetic) fertilizers, pesticides

plant growth regulators such as hormones, livestock

antibiotics, food additives, genetically modified

organisms (GMOs), human biosolids (sewage), etc

QUESTION: What does Organic farming manage to produce

healthier Soils?

A HISTORICAL FACT:

Land cultivation for

agriculture has

decreased the

organic matter

content of a soil by

50%

29Photography by TVU © Sydney Catchment Authority

QUESTION: Why do we care if there is

less organic matter in the

soil??

ANSWER: Organic matter holds soil particles together to

resist erosion. Organic farming adds organic

matter to soils so less erosion.

NOTE: Erosion affects muddiness of water systems which

then could affect fish and other aquatic organisms.

http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/stories/soil-erosion-increasing-global-warming-threat; Friday, February 17, 2012

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Little

organic

matter in

soil,

southern

Mexico

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QUESTION?

Which soil is

better and

more healthy?

Left? Or right?

ANSWER:

Left good for

agriculture but

right good for

forests but not

agriculture

QUESTION? Can

good are we at making or

building a soil to supports the

vegetation that you want

growing on it?? Learn from

kids!!

For the scientific

method YOU

NEED!

Unfortunately not

easy like shown

on left!

BRIEF INTERMISSION:

An experiment to create the

soil for the Biosphere 2 in

the Arizona desert

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TAKE-HOME MESSAGE - Too much

organic matter in the soil can be

unhealthy for humans living in a ‘closed

system’ (air-tight)

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Biosphere 2 in Arizona

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Biosphere 2

3636

They got the rainfall right!

Atmosphere

to be

cleaned by

recycling

through the

agricultural

fields

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BUT Needed to build a tropical soil since Arizona

does not allow the importation of tropical soils!!

Arizona is a desert with desert soils.

• Tropical forest soils are generally acidic

– Native Arizona soil is mostly alkaline,

so add Organic Matter (OM) to soil

• Decomposition of OM creates organic &

carbonic acids in soil decreasing soil pH

• So they added OM to the alkaline soil to

acidify it

• However too much OM was added to the

soil in the Bio2,

– microbes decomposed the OM,

releasing much CO2 while using lots of O2

3838

BUT CO2 was absorbed by the artificial rock formations so

there wasn’t a negative CO2 feedback loop to stop microbial

production of CO2; therefore microbes continued

decomposing OM, consuming O2, and releasing CO2.

3939

That may be OK if you are a microbe but not a HUMAN!!

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Problems

• CO2 increases to 2000 ppm but leveled off around 800-1500 ppm (or 0.08 - 0.15%)

• O2 decreases from 21% to 15% (equivalent to living at 9000 foot elevation) and continued decreasing

4040

Kidney

stones

Not

enough

oxygen

SO WHAT DID PAST SOCIETIES DO WHEN

THEIR SOILS WERE LOW IN ORGANIC

MATTER??

MIGRATE SOMEWHERE ELSE??

NO, some didn’t!!

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Terra preta – 2,000 year ago experiment to add carbon to

soils in the wet tropics

Early

Soil Scientists!

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Terra Preta (do indio)

or Indian black earth-like anthropogenic soil with

enhanced fertility due to its high levels of soil

organic matter (SOM) and nutrients (such as

nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and calcium)

embedded in a landscape of infertile soils

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COMMENT: High SOM but not approaching the high

levels found in the Biosphere 2

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Stable form of soil carbon made by humans ~2000 years ago

RESULT: they built a fertile layer of topsoil that is still

productive and valuable today

FACT: Globally made by a diversity of societies

FOUND in the Brazilian Amazon basin, other

regions of South America such as Ecuador

and Peru

but also Western Africa (Benin, Liberia) & in the

savannas of South Africa, Asia

Terra Preta: A 2000 Year Old Soil Experiment

(Steiner, 2002)

• Carbon dated at 800 B.C-500 A.D

• High Carbon

conc (9%); non-

Terra Preta soils

are around 1%

carbon

• Local farmers

prize Terra Preta

which yields as

much as three

fold crop yields

as surrounding

infertile tropical

soils.

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What do we find in these anomalous black earths?

“Terra Preta” soil – has 2

½ times more organic

matter in the soil

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Plus a bunch

of charcoal

Low carbon &

nutrient poor soil

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The Secret Ingredient

Evidence that soils were

created by humans

add

charcoal

One consistent feature of terra preta sites:

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(Steiner, 2002)

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charcoalcharcoal

control

Note: taller corn plants when charcoal

added to soil compared to controls

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TODAY: Terra

preta sites are

so valued they

are dug up &

sold as potting

soil

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TAKE HOME

MESSAGES:

• A well managed soil is a GOOD SOIL

• A GOOD SOIL is a LIVE SOIL

• A LIVE SOIL is a RESILIENT SOIL

• A LIVE SOIL is not DIRT

• A LIVE SOIL makes humans HAPPY!!