MICHAEL PALACE majored in archaeology and environmental science at the University of Virginia, then turned to the environmental science side of things as he pursued his master’s degree at UVA. For his thesis he studied the dynamics of Costa Rican howler monkeys in relation to landscape-level vegetation structure. The monkeys would move about with the shifting wet/dry seasons and Palace would gather data by tagging along like an outlying member of the troop. On the side, he would often train a microphone on the howlers’ loud morning choruses, which he would later use in his semi-professional career creating electronic music blended with audio field recordings.

Ruth Varner
Michael Palace atop an overturned tree
in the Brazilian Amazon.
Photo by Steve Hagen
Despite the inherent difficulties imposed by research in remote reaches of tropical rainforest, the jungles of Central America got into Palace’s blood. Next stop on his academic ascension was UNH where he linked up with Michael Keller, project scientist for the NASA-sponsored, Brazilian-led Large Scale Biosphere Atmosphere in Amazonia (LBA) project. Palace relished the opportunity to explore the tropical rainforests of South America and, while pursuing his Ph.D., worked full-time with Keller conducting research in three regions of the Brazilian Amazon. Among other things, he wrote computer programs and databases to visualize and statistically analyze trace gas measurements.

Abstruse scientific stuff. But Palace, now a tropical ecologist and research assistant professor at the Complex Systems Research Center (CSRC) within the Institute for the Study or Earth, Oceans, and Space, has come full circle with a $364,063 grant from NASA’s Space Archaeology Program. For the three-year project he won’t be using satellite remote sensing technology to estimate things like tree canopy dynamics or overall forest biomass. Rather, he’ll use the high-tech methods to help nail down much-disputed population estimates of pre-Columbian indigenous peoples in the Amazon Basin lowlands. The project will integrate his knowledge of remote sensing, tropical vegetation, and his interest in archaeology.

Collaborating with a Brazilian archaeologist and another ecologist on the project, Palace will use imagery from an instrument onboard NASA’s Terra satellite to locate “Amazonian black earths” or, in Portuguese, “terra preta” sites that designate areas where indigenous Amazonian peoples lived and worked the land prior to colonial contact back in the late 15th century.

“This is a big issue because people think there may be thousands of terra preta sites across the Amazonian basin,” Palace says adding, “and if we can show they are indeed that extensive it will really change our understanding of how many people lived in the region and the impact they had on what we still perceive to be ‘pristine’ forest.”

Currently, pre-Columbian population estimates vary widely – from 500,000 to 10 million – and are the subject of much controversy and debate. Knowing with more accuracy how many people might have impacted the rainforest through agriculture and development prior to European contact will help scientists understand how the Amazon Basin might withstand current pressures from deforestation, selective logging, and development.

Palace still views himself as a tropical ecologist working at the landscape level, but to study the immense Amazonian forest he has become an expert in using satellite-borne imagery. In this project he will use hyperspectral imagery taken by NASA’s Hyperion sensor.

Archaeological excavation of terra preta sites
in Brazil.Courtesy of Eduardo Neves.
The Hyperion camera “sees” in 220 spectral bands of light, allowing scientists to identify the chemical makeup of tree leaves, which in turn is related to nutrients in the underlying soil. The more nutrient-rich leaves or specific groups of tree species seen by Hyperion will be the signature for the Amazonian black earths Palace is looking for – sites containing soil rich in organic matter, charcoal, and nutrients and frequently associated with large accumulations of potsherds, bone, and other artifacts of human origin. The soils were created hundreds of years ago when indigenous populations slowly burned trees to make soil equivalent to “biochar,” which is extremely efficient at storing carbon and nutrients and provides fertile, productive farmland.

“There are terra preta sites all over the Amazonian basin, particularly near rivers and bluffs, but no one really knows their whole distribution,” says Palace, who will collaborate with Mark Bush, an ecologist from the Florida Institute of Technology, and Brazilian archaeologist Eduardo Neves of the University of San Paulo. Also collaborating on the project are Stephen Hagen, a research scientist at Applied GeoSolutions in Newmarket, N.H. who received his Ph.D. at UNH, and former CSRC faculty member Rob Braswell, now at Atmospheric Environmental Research, Inc. in Lexington, Mass.

Archaeological excavation of terra preta sites in Brazil.
Courtesy of Eduardo Neves.
Having identified terra preta sites in the Hyperion imagery, the researchers will, among other methods, use a “neural network” – an adaptive mathematical system that will learn to identify the difference between sites that are terra preta and those that are not using the complex data from the Hyperion imagery. Says Palace, “Once we develop the neural network model we’ll be able to extrapolate across the entire Amazon landscape and identify the location of other sites. This will allow archaeologists to go there and determine if they are indeed terra preta and, from that, we should be able to accurately estimate the indigenous population prior to colonial contact. We will also be able to look at the connectivity and spatial dimension of these sites across the landscape and compare the location with other geological and geographic information.”

At six million square kilometers, the Amazon basin contains the largest continuous rainforest in the world and constitutes 40 percent of what remains of this ecotype. If Palace’s research indicates there was a large population of indigenous peoples using the forest to maintain a highly productive agricultural system, it is likely that Amazonian forest vegetation was significantly altered and may be thought of as a cultural artifact, resilient to human disturbance and not an undisturbed forest.

“The indigenous peoples probably had some sort of cycling system where they would burn fields and forests, let them grow back to a certain extent, and let mixed crops and certain types of trees grow,” Palace says. He adds that his Brazilian colleague, Eduardo Neves, has determined that three types of palm trees are prevalent in terra preta sites. “So in addition to the nutrient signature in the hyperspectral signal, we might also be seeing specific species of trees that will help us locate these areas.”

Palace will travel to Brazil to confer with his colleagues but the Amazon project will not involve any fieldwork on his part. However, a simultaneous project recently funded by the NASA New Investigator Program in Earth Science will take him back to Costa Rica where he will examine tropical forest structure using multiple remote sensing platforms, including airborne lidar.

“Lidar is a type of laser that, with the right application, can give you the shape of the whole forest from the ground to the top of the tree canopy,” Palace explains. “I’m creating a method of using lidar to understand both the forest understory and the tree canopy, which will help determine the forest structure in three dimensions.”

The same techniques used in Costa Rica can also be applied other types of habitats, including New England landscapes. Palace is doing just that as principal science investigator on a project examining Lyme disease in New Hampshire, which is funded by NASA’s Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) program.

The remotely sensed data includes highly detailed biophysical and biochemical information derived from satellite-based optical and radar imagery of the landscape favored by white-tailed deer and small rodents – important hosts for the tick species responsible for transmitting Lyme disease.

Back in Costa Rica, Palace will also continue work in his nonscientific endeavor of making field recordings that he uses to create “generative” electronic music under the pseudonym. “horchata.” Described as “a crafter of sonic landscapes” by one reviewer, horchata has recorded a number of albums and wrote the soundtrack to the documentary film about global warming titled “Out of Balance: ExxonMobil’s Impact on Climate Change.”

To hear Palace’s sound recordings visit http://wanderingear.com/we003.html

by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY on 08. 3.10

photo: Stefano Mortellaro via flickr

Biochar proponents now have an additional benefit to tout, in addition to increasing crop yields and carbon storage of soil: According to a long-term study in Australia, biochar both reduces nitrous oxide emissions from soil by 73%, and reduces inorganic nitrogen runoff from fields by up to 94%.

The study in the Journal of Environmental Quality, done by Bhupinder Pal Singh of Industry & Investment New South Wales and Balwant Singh from the University of Sydney, found that initially biochar produced inconsistent effects. Early on it appeared that biochar increased nitrous oxide emissions. However, after four months the effect was reversed, with aging of biochar in the soil cited as a possible reason for the switch from adverse to beneficial effects, in terms of emissions.

“The impacts of biochars on nitrous oxide emissions from soil are of interest because even small reductions in nitrous oxide emissions can considerably enhance the greenhouse mitigation value of biochar, which is already proven to be a highly stable carbon pool in the soil environment,” according to senior author Bhupinder Pal Singh. “This research highlights that impacts of biochar on nitrogen transformations in soil may change over time and hence stresses the need for long-term studies to assess biochar’s potential to reduce nitrogen losses from soil.” (Science Daily)

Jul 18, 2010 Joseph Reynolds     http://climate-change.suite101.com

A Couple of Solutions can Help Slow Global Warming?

Making of biochar in the Third World is like locally producing organic fertilizer for no cost while cooking a meal without paying for the cooking fuel. The energy for the meal comes from the burning of biomass that is converted to charcoal through simple gasification. During the three years of farming the farmer can easily generate enough biochar to fertilize the same piece of land, thus averting the need to cut more forest.

Probiotics for soil is the method of using friendly bacteria on the soil to bring back the symbiotic relationships that create “breathing” for the entire agroforest floor. The definition given by the FAO/WHO, probiotics are: ‘Live microorganisms which when administered in adequate amounts confer a health benefit on the host’.

This biological relationship naturally creates the growing environment that supports trees and plants on a regular basis. The biochar on and near the surface of the soil helps to keep the system from leaching away.

Agroforestry is Another Solution through Agroforestry Community Development

Reforestation reconditions the soil of formerly barren land. Agroforestry is the solution that offers infrastructure through agroforesry communities. it introduces biodiversity, something that the original forests used to thrive upon. It is where probiotics works with biochar to sequester carbon, hold good bacteria and create a colony of microorganisms that sustainably nurture the soil and the flora.

Grassroots Economic Development Eradicates Poverty Which Sustains Agroforestry

The demographics of a hectare of agroforest eradicate poverty for one farmer family while growing 600 species of flora that produce something of value each year. The biodiversity produces fruit, nuts, sap, fiber, medicinal, herbal or biomass and sustainable timber.

With so many species there is production every day of the year and therefore when a weather-induced calamity occurs all production up to that very day is not affected, only that during the recovery period, which diversity enables to be more rapid than otherwise.

Reforestation is a Social Event More than it is Planting Trees

The author is asked regularly how much land he owns regarding reforestation in the Third World. His answer, “None, if the locals do not want you there, you will not be there, but if they want you there they will offer more land than you can possibly reforest.” Ownership of the trees is a different matter. It is with the children that the author places his education and training and future ownership of the trees.

Funding Sources Like the World Bank, ADB and other Country Development Banks

For funding sources afforestation, reforestation and agroforestry are numbers oriented involving simply the planting of trees. Social projects are separate. The immediate solutions to climate change are here but the they require a mixture of the numbers and the social sustainability. Agroforestry communities are the single most viable solution to slowing climate change and global warming. Therefore, new categories for funding become the proximate solution.

Causes of Global Warming and Climate Change as they relate to the solutions.

Further Reading

Agribusinessweek.com reports about Probiotics (friendly bacteria above)

By Larry Kershner/Farm News news editor

POSTED: July 2, 2010

Photos

An unidentified conference attendee takes pictures of the pit dug to show the soil profile where biochar and dairy manure was disced into damaged soil in a test plot designed to show how it can help restore depleted soil.

Fact Box

Biochar:

-noun. A fine-grained charcoal high in organic carbon and largely resistant to decomposition.

As a soil amendment, biochar significantly increases the efficiency of, and reduces the need for, traditional chemical fertilizers, while greatly enhancing crop yields.

Source: reference.com

BOONE When David Laird, standing in a corn test plot, said Tuesday evening that biochar not only repaired damaged soils for crop production, but was also a key component in long term crop sustainability in fertile soils, a murmur rolled through the listeners.

He pressed on.

“The idea of the biochar is to maintain soil quality, while maintaining yield.”

Laird was speaking at Iowa State University’s BioCentury Research Center, near Boone. Hen was talking to a group of field tour attendees, who have also been attending an international biochar conference in Ames.

This conference is a multiday event where the science, practice, and understanding of biochar were advanced. Conference literature claimed that biochar exists at the intersection of agriculture, climate science and energy, acting as a soil amendment and an agent for carbon sequestration.

According to www.answerbag.com: “Biochar provides places for micro flora to grow and also holds water and nutrients that can be available for plants. When mixed with soil, the result is terra preta.”

In the corn test plot, plant growth and yield were being monitored based on the amount of biochar incorporated into the soil, along with the removal of field residue. The trial is trying to indicate if residue removal – for biofuel production, for example will not deprive soil of the nutrients gained from residue breakdown, if biochar can substitute that loss.

The test plants that were the tallest had biochar incorporated, at a rate of 4.4 tons per acre, with 90 to 100 percent of residue removed. Whether that computes into more corn in grain cart this fall is yet to be determined, he noted.

Laird said the taller corn was evidence that the plants were not competing with the residue for nitrogen. “Now that’s the short term view,” Laird cautioned his listeners. The long term considerations of leaving more residue behind at harvest includes erosion control in times of heavy rain while plants are small and early-season weed control that residue provides between rows.

The 24-acre parcel contained 28 plots, 24 with biochar incorporated in 2007, Laird said. The plots include cover crop applications and corn planted with both no-till and conventional tillage methods.

Laird said there are plans to incorporate more biochar this fall. “For long term sustainability, it becomes necessary to apply additional carbon because you are harvesting the forage.”

To dramatically show what biochar can accomplish for a field, Laird introduced the tour attendees to a small parcel of corn planted in a totally depleted soil. The spot was near U.S. Highway 30, where the Iowa Department of Transportation took the topsoil for construction when widening the highway.

A 16-row corn plot was planted into the poor soil. A three-row wide segment was mixed with biochar, at a rate equal to 30 tons per acre, Laird said, along with some dairy manure.

These three rows were twice as big, almost five feet tall, and a lush green color. The other rows farther away from the biochar-manure-soil mix were stunted and light green by comparison.

He said biochar is applicable for redemption of sandy, depleted, eroded or damaged soils. He said there is also application for urban areas where bulldozers have compacted the topsoil.

“We anticipated seeing benefits (of biochar) in depleted soils,” Laird said, “But we’re seeing that in better quality soils, biochar becomes a component in maintaining a sustainable system.”

To be used, biochar should be incorporated into the soil of a garden or farm field. It should be mixed in gently so as to prevent killing worms. Biochar could make-up five percent to 10 percent of the soil when the job is done, but it should not all be mixed in at once. Two or three years of adding smaller amounts seem to work better.

Once the biochar is in the soil, there should be little need to till. There should also be reduced fertilizer requirements, although phosphorus, potassium and trace minerals may need to be added periodically.

Other plots

Other test plots on Tuesday night’s tour, included looking at switchgrass, being grown for biofuel and biochar sources and understanding when is best time for harvesting. ISU agronomists Emily Heaton and Danielle Wilson, explained that the plot is watching how the grass responds to harvesting at five different intervals of the growing season.

They said that it is already understood that the grass should wait until fall, when most of the nitrogen has receded into the lower third of the plant.

“The more nitrogen that is extracted with the bio-oil,” Wilson said, “the more expensive it is to remove it from the oil.”

Matt Liebman, an ISU professor of agronomy, and Renae Diettzel, who is working on her PhD in carbon sequestration, explained how they are looking at native prairie grasses, grown for biomass production, in both fertilized and unfertilized plots. They are monitoring, among other things, when nutrients move from soil to plant and back again, as well as the carbon the plants sequester and the quality of rain water runoff.

Liebman said there is more root development in the unfertilized field than in the fertilized. He explained that the fertilized plants don’t have to work as hard for nutrients as its unfertilized counterpart.

However, he noted, that because the unfertilized stand has shorter, thicker stalks, they stand better against high winds with less lodging than the fertilized stand.

Matt Helmers, an associate professor in ag engineering at ISU, showed the well monitoring system that tracks and records the amount of runoff from each of the different plots, as well as the trace elements, such as nitrates, that are carried in the water.

Contact Larry Kershner at (515) 573-2141, Ext. 453, or by e-mail at kersh@farm-news.com.

Hi Folks,

It was not quite 9 months ago, when I sent out an email to a small group of collaborators, with a Subject line that asked the question: “How do we get biochar stoves to Central America?” Of course, like the punch line to the old vaudeville joke, the answer is “lots of hard work”.  I could not have imagined 9 months ago was how rewarding all that work would feel. I want to share that feeling with all of you.
I recently returned to Seattle from Costa Rica’s famed coffee producing area the Santos Zone. This was my second trip since mid- January. I have been continuing my work as a technical consultant to a clean stove/biochar project. Proyecto Estufa Finca (Farm Stove) was initiated by organic coffee farmer Arturo Segura  http://www.solcolibri.com/ and the members of the local citizens group APORTES.
The goal of the Estufa Finca/ Costa Rica project  is to provide safe and affordable alternative cooking technology to one of the most vulnerable populations in Central America. Each year over 100, 000 migrant agricultural workers enter Costa Rica to harvest the coffee and cocoa we enjoy. This population of families most often live without access to clean water and sanitation. They typically cook on smoky and inefficient wood fires.
The effects of this daily exposure to high levels of carbon monoxide and soot fall most heavily on women and young children. Respiratory disease is a leading cause of sickness and death in this population. This situation mirrors that of millions of families in Central America. This toll is not only felt in terms of human health, but also in it’s contribution to deforestation and climate change.
I am very pleased to announce that in cooperation with the recently formed local woman’s group of APORTES (the Givers), SeaChar.Org is now helping to build and distribute the clean burning, biochar producing, Estufa Finca biomass stove for the Central America market. These elegant, efficient stoves, which are  designed in Seattle and made in Costa Rica, are now available for $40 US. (plus shipping)  We recently had the assistance of TLUD stove inventor Dr. Paul Anderson    http://www.hedon.info/Micro-gasificationWhatItIsAndWhyItWorks and a $1500 tool and materials grant from a Bloomington-Normal Illinois, Rotary Club . This has allowed us to put together a temporary workshop, where three women can work and to stock supplies for 65 stoves. The initial goal of our joint Seattle/ Costa Rica project is to reach the estimated 1,500 seasonal agricultural workers homes in the Santos zone, with a clean, safe efficient cook stove. A donation of $40 pays for a stove for a coffee pickers family.
The woman’s owned stove workshop is located in Santa Maria de Dota, Costa Rica. Working from patterns, guides and jigs, which we developed as a team, the women can produce completed stoves and stove “kits”.  Working with partners like Santos Tour http://www.santostour.net/ , the kits are being assembled and paid for by visiting student volunteers, during one-day “Stove- building” workshops. APORTES organizer and workshop leader Carolina Abarca, is getting stoves built and training Estufa Finca global ambassadors. These are high quality appliances, assembled with simple hand tools and rivets. The completed stoves are tested and then donated to the Proyecto Estufa Finca, to be leased for home placement with migrant coffee picker families. The Estufa Finca is both fuel flexible and fuel efficient. These easy to use TLUD-style, stoves burn with 65% lower emissions of carbon monoxide and soot, than a traditional, open three-stone fire. They convert dry biomass waste into a clean gas flame and valuable charcoal. Interest and demand for both the stoves and workshops are growing. We are getting inquiries from around Costa Rica and around the world. The potential for widespread good and a vibrant woman’s owned business seem imminent.
To realize this potential is going to take your critical early support. Your investment of time, money or expertise at this early phase will ensure our success. The Seattle based non-profit, Seattle Biochar Working Group, is providing carbon negative technology development, testing, training and fund raising assistance for Proyecto Estufa Finca. You can make a tax deductible donation using PayPal at http://www.seachar.org/ or contact art.donnelly@seachar.org for information on how to buy stoves and to learn how you can help us reinvent fire.

Pura Vida,

Art Donnelly
SeaChar.Org
Proyecto Estufa Finca

It’s time to START THE SCIENCE PROJECT and plant our first test crop.

Then WE NEED YOUR HELP!!

Join the Seachar.org plot crew and participate in Citizen Science as we plant our 16 test beds with our first crop of corn in our Carbon Garden Test Beds at South Seattle Community College.

We will be planting 2-4 thousand seed by hand. Not strenuous but we need all our friends to come out in force to help. It should be a fun day as we’ll be able to talk and enjoy the garden and each other as we plant. WE NEED YOU TO COME AND BRING AS MANY FRIENDS AS YOU CAN!!

CORN SOWING :

PLEASE SHOW UP AT THE START OF SHIFT!!

Saturday June 5th 9am – 3pm

@ the SSCC SeaChar Carbon Garden

located at the south end of the SSCC Delridge Campus

*next to the cell-phone tower

AND:

Sunday, June 6th 10am – 3pm

See the www.seachar.org site for last minute details or contact art.donnelly@seachar.org, or artfulgarden@nwlink.com with any questions!

Char!

Art, Jim & Sue @ SeaChar.org

• Low cost materials
• Basic shop tools only
• Low emissions
• Efficient biomass conversion
• Controlled firing profile
• Recycle pyrolysis gases
• Collect wood vinegar

The 55 gallon drum–durable, affordable, widely available, easily handled–is at the heart of the design. A removable-lid drum stuffed with wood mill scrap serves as the retort. To prime the kiln, I had been considering scaling up one of the newer innovative biomass stove designs, but felt stymied by the challenge of refueling and controlling output. On a suggestion from stover-friend Charlie Sellers, I looked into the Rocket Stove (www.rocketstove.org/), a versatile design that addressed my emissions, fuel feed, and control concerns. The rest of the hardware fell into place after a bit of “outside the drum” thinking: Create fire chamber and insulating jackets (two total) by cutting ends off drums, slitting open, and welding inserts cut from a third drum. The tricky bit was opening the slit drums evenly to maintain the roundness of the now-larger cylinders. The nesting Russian doll cylinders rest on staircase ledges in the modified rocket stove base. Each cylinder is topped by a shallow cone-shaped lid with a central exhaust vent made by cutting a sliver wedge out of a sheet metal disc and welding the cut edges together. The lids are secured by bolts welded to the inside rim of the cylinders.

The other design consideration was collecting wood vinegar (natural pesticide and plant growth stimulant) and recycling pyrolysis gases. A two-inch steel pipe was threaded onto the bung hole on the lid of the retort drum, exiting holes cut into the shallow cone lids, and elbowing down toward the stove’s fuel feed opening. A “T” fitting and valves enable directing evolved gases toward either a condenser pipe leading away from the kiln to collect wood vinegar, or directly into the fuel chamber to fire the kiln. The fuel feed opening is divided horizontally by a stainless plate, with the lower portion intended for intake air. Being able to block the throat of the upper portion of the feed chamber enables greater range of control and can improve combustion efficiency by limiting excess air.