The Mystery of Amazonian Dark Earth

Carbon sequestration faces some major hurdles. Technical geosequestration methods could pump large amounts of CO₂ deep underground but are still under development. On the other hand, natural methods that store carbon in living ecosystems may be possible in the short term but require huge swathes of land and are only as stable the ecosystems themselves. An ideal solution, however, would combine the quick fix of biological methods with the absolute potential of technical ones. Terra preta may do just that, as a recent article in the journal Nature reveals.


Please read the full article:
http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/008517.html

Cornell biogeochemist shows how reproducing the Amazon's black soil could increase fertility and reduce global warming

by Susan Lang, published by Cornell University (link below)

ST. LOUIS -- The search for El Dorado in the Amazonian rainforest might not have yielded pots of gold, but it has led to unearthing a different type of gold mine: some of the globe's richest soil that can transform poor soil into highly fertile ground.

That's not all. Scientists have a method to reproduce this soil -- known as terra preta, or Amazonian dark earths -- and say it can pull substantial amounts of carbon out of the increasing carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere, helping to prevent global warming. That's because terra preta is loaded with so-called bio-char -- similar to charcoal.

To read the full article:
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Feb06/AAAS.terra.preta.ssl.html