Do regular infiltration tests
Free to do and will help you quantify improvements to soil structure and water holding capacity
Om levels
- Thread starter juke
- Start date
Do regular infiltration tests
Free to do and will help you quantify improvements to soil structure and water holding capacity
SilliamWhale
Member
Soil testing can give you a very basic but useful picture of P K and ph. I still think its worthwhile
it's a tool in the box for sure but to many rely on pretty maps on their laptop and ignore the basics and what they can actually see simply by sticking a spade in the ground
Philip Hedeng
Member
- Location
- Halmstad, Sweden
What conclusion regarding C sequestration do you draw from that, Sören?
SorenIlsoe
Member
- Location
- Fjenneslev, Denmark
Just some frustration that it takes so very long time to build up SOM levels. The more organic matter we apply and the better the soil health is, the higher microbial activity we get, and these microbes burns off a lot of the applied C to CO2.
But it is a fact that plowed farmland loses C fast. Here in Denmark measurements since 1985 shows that some soils loses 1,2 t C/ha/year (app. 4 t CO2).
No-till and cover crops can stop or reduce this, but it is difficult to change the trend.
http://csanr.wsu.edu/no-till-soc/
But it is a fact that plowed farmland loses C fast. Here in Denmark measurements since 1985 shows that some soils loses 1,2 t C/ha/year (app. 4 t CO2).
No-till and cover crops can stop or reduce this, but it is difficult to change the trend.
http://csanr.wsu.edu/no-till-soc/
SilliamWhale
Member
Only roots can build carbon. Cultivating in residue doesn't
Are you saying that because the roots are still living they aren't broken down so therefore contribute to increased soil carbon, whereas the applied C from manures and incorporated residues are eventually broken down and therefore aren't going to build C?
But C is part of a cycle. As the CO2 rises out of the soil and into the crop canopy, how much is absorbed into the crop by the photosynthesising leaves?
If I remember correctly, the rain forests in S. America pretty much utilise all the CO2 released from the soil i.e.. the system is in an equilibrium, despite there being a considerable CO2 output.
That sounds like rubbish - please explain further. Organic matter comes from many sources, not just roots. Applied manures, straw & other plant material etc.
SilliamWhale
Member
You emit more carbon from cultivating in residue than not. You need humus to build your soil OM and you can't build humus very well if your cultivating. I say roots and all the stuff going on around the root systems contribute to organic matter much more than any residues cultivated in. I'd say farmers often neglect the role and the potential of old root systems in the mix not least becauses its harder to measure and less visual.
SilliamWhale
Member
No I'm saying if you cultivate in any residue then I think your not building soil carbon very well. Dying roots are a great food source for the bugs until new ones come along they can't survive the famine/feast cultivation very well - I think any cultivating of root systems affects humus building. But I do get that sometimes this is the most practical thing to do from the farming point of view - best to leave everything on the surface to be taken in by biology AND retain the roots and those creatures who rely on roots which do a better job of developing humus than cultivating in hunks of dry straw or wet muck! In my opinion
SilliamWhale
Member
I expect their tree canopy is amazing effective at capturing c02 - in fact that is pretty much what James Lovelock said about them being self regulating isn't it? I imagine grasslands were able to create a reasonable equilibrium of their own too - until artificial N came along...
I see - your argument is that the cultivation negates the OM building. Fair point. Don't ignore the contribution to SOM of soil amendments like manures. I can show you many soils that have changed for the better thanks to massive organic matter applications despite being cultivated.
SilliamWhale
Member
Sure but with that your not actually building carbon you using someone else's carbon to build your own iyswim. Nothing wrong with that (I do it with muck from down the road) but I think you can build your own carbon on your farm using roots and atmosphere and that the role of keeping roots in the ground is underappreciated.
End of sermon, mankini off...
You going to be a grassland farmer now? The joys of milking at 4 in the morning or maybe lambing even?
bactosoil
Member
While microbial activity is great ( and hugely important) its is easy to over stimulate and cause faster c degradation, this will be largely due to quorum sensing
bacteria driving increased bacterial activity , being able to top this out will help keep soil health and not over stimulated that otherwise leads to degradation of various things including carbon
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Tell me more about 'quorum sensing bacteria' please. I'm not familiar with them!
bactosoil
Member
Around 80% of all bacteria can communicate environmental and population details to other similar or non type specific bacteria , just like a very primitive
phone network. With this information bacteria can effectively decide to proliferate because conditions are ideal or lay dormant until they are . .Quorum sensing is well proven and documented though a huge amount to learn .One of the best demonstrations of quorum sensing is the effect of bio-clogging in soil where soils can become effectively glued together by biofilms in as little as 20 minutes making a pervious soil rapidly impervious.Other well known effects are biofilms better known as plaque or luminescence in fish .
It is possible as environmental conditions change to monitor increased bacteria 'chatter ' with fungi capable of similar abilities.
Things begin to get interesting when communication pathways can be modulated when excess occurs . .All of this has a huge bearing on what happens within any soil where ever it is .
To follow on from the Rev.d Silliam's sermon, it is astonishing when you think about it, but plants exude up to 70% of the sugar that they've made, via photosynthesis, out of atmosheric CO2 and water, into the soil. If you have healthy and undisturbed soil there should be a good network of mycorrhizal fungi in it, which burrow into the plants roots and take sugar in exchange for vital nutrients and water. This sugar they use to make glomalin which sticks particles of soil together and help form its structure as well as being the base of humus, the best and most stable form of SOM.
Thus manures and incorporated residues are all very fine, but will be eaten by soil creatures from bacteria and fungi through to all the tiny crustaceans, nematodes and worms. This feeds the system, but won't build stable SOM nearly as well as permanently covered undisturbed soil (ideally covered with a permanently growing crop, hence why cover crops or herbal leys are so beneficial).
But it's a fiendishly complicated ecosystem and, as Bactosoil points out, a lot can go wrong. Once you've built it up though, things get better and better...