HomeScience & TechAmazonia transformed the previously poor soil through numerous mechanisms between 450 BC...

Amazonia transformed the previously poor soil through numerous mechanisms between 450 BC use to livehood

Millions of Indians living in present day Amazonia transformed the previously poor soil through numerous mechanisms between 450 BC and 950 AD. The soils were improved with charcoal from low-intensity fires, which was used to cook and burn garbage, animal bones, broken pottery, compost, and manure for many human generations.

The final product is Amazonian Dark Soil (ADE) or terra preta, which is extremely fertile due to its high concentration of nutrients and stable organic matter formed from charcoal, which gives it its black color.

Scientists in Brazil have now shown that ADE may be a secret weapon to accelerate deforestation not only in the Amazon, where 18 pc or around 780,000 km2 have been destroyed since the 1970s. The findings were reported in Frontiers in Soil Science.

“Here we show that the use of ADEs can improve the growth of pastures and trees due to their high nutrient content, as well as the presence of beneficial bacteria and archaea in the soil microbial community,” said co-author Luis Felipe Zagatto. graduate student at the Center for Nuclear Energy in Agriculture, University of São Paulo.

A miniature imitation of afforestation

The researchers conducted controlled experiments to mimic the ecological succession and soil changes that occur when grasslands in deforested areas are actively restored to forest.

Zagatto and colleagues collected ADE samples from the Caldeirao Experimental Research Station in the Brazilian state of Amazonas and, as a control, agricultural soil from the Luiz de Queiroz Higher School of Agriculture in the state of Sao Paulo. They filled each of 36 four-litre pots with 3kg of soil inside a greenhouse with an average temperature of 34°C to predict global warming above current temperatures in the Amazon between 22 and 28°C.

One third of the pots received control soil only, another third a 4:1 mixture of control soil and ADE, and another third 100% ADE. To mimic grassland, they planted seeds of palisade grass (Urochloa brizantha), a common cattle forage in Brazil, in each pot and allowed its seedlings to grow for 60 days. Then they mow the grass and leave only its roots in the soil – virgin territory for reforestation in miniature.

Seeds were allowed to germinate and seedlings to grow for 90 days, after which root height, dry weight and extension were measured. The researchers quantified changes in soil pH, texture, and concentrations of organic matter, potassium, calcium, magnesium, aluminum, sulfur, boron, copper, iron, and zinc over the course of the experiment. They also measured changes in soil microbial diversity using molecular methods.

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Rich in nutrients and beneficial microbes

At the beginning, the ADEs showed more nutrients than the control soil: for example, 30 times more phosphorus and three to five times more of each of the other nutrients measured, except manganese. The ADE also had a higher pH and contained more sand and silt but less clay.

 After the experiment, the soils contained less nutrients than at the beginning, reflecting plant uptake, but the 100% ADE soils remained richer in them than the control soils, while nutrient levels were intermediate in the 20% ADE soils.

Throughout the experiment, 20% or 100% ADE soils supported greater bacterial and archaea biodiversity than control soils.

“Microbes convert soil chemical particles into nutrients that plants can take up. Our data showed that ADE contains microorganisms that are better at this soil transformation, providing more resources for plant development,” said joint lead author Anderson Santos de Freitas.

“For example, ADE soils contained more beneficial taxa of the bacterial families Paenibacillaceae, Planococcaceae, Micromonosporaceae, and Hyphomicroblaceae.”

Growth boosted

The results also showed that the addition of ADE to the soil improved plant growth and development. For example, palisade grass dry mass increased 3.4-fold at 20% ADE and 8.1-fold at 100% ADE compared to the control soil.

The addition of ADE also promoted the growth of these three tree species: cedro blanco and P. dubium seedlings were 2.1 and 5.2 times higher in 20% ADE and 3.2 and 6.3 times higher in 100% ADE, respectively, compared to control soils. Ambay pumpwood did not grow in either control soils or 20% ADE, but thrived in 100% ADE.

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