Continuing with the topic of soil management, this article on the importance of forest soil nutrition for carbon sequestration was intriguing. If you hope to help fight global warming by planting trees, make sure you pay attention to soil nutrition or you may end up doing very little to remove carbon dioxide. It’s also something to consider if you want a healthy source of timber after Peak Oil.
Forest Soil Management
Submitted by PeakEngineer on Wed, 2006-12-20 10:06.
»
- PeakEngineer's blog
- Login or register to post comments
Delicious
Digg
Reddit
Magnoliacom
Furl
Trees Aren't Always Cool
According to this story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6184577.stm
trees planted in the tropics will do more to cool the earth than those in northern latitudes. They believe that the "black body effect" of evergreen trees will contribute to heating in northern latitudes. In my book, trees are always preferential to blacktop & concrete, even if they aren't always as cool as tropical trees.
True
I read that story as well, and I agree with you that trees will always trump asphalt. I would guess that some species of trees may be better in terms of carbon sequestration than others, and they may not have taken into account the varying effects of soil nutrition as mentioned in the post. In any case, these stories have a clear impact on the carbon offset market.
While We're At It
The life stage of the tree also determines the amount of carbon sequestration. When a tree is very young, and after it fully matures, less sequestration takes place; it's during the growing years when trees trap the most carbon. I wish I could site a source for this but I forgot where I heard it.