Re-Thinking the Conservation of Carbon, Water and Soil: A Different Perspective

Abstract

Sustaining soil productivity requires continuing actions of soil organisms on organic materials for optimizing of soil porosity and of movements of roots, water and gases in the root-zone. Soil is more quickly formed and self-renewed from the top downwards than only by slow additions from the bottom upwards. Loss of porosity diminishes soil's infiltration capacity and water-holding potential. Factors that provide insufficient organic substrates for soil organisms and that unduly accelerate oxidation of soil organic matter hinder the self-recuperation of soil and facilitate 'Stage-1' loss of carbon from within soil aggregates. They predispose the soil to lose rapidly even more carbon, in particulate form, through 'Stage-2' losses during consequent processes of runoff and erosion. Forms of land use and management are advocated that favor the functioning of soil-inhabiting organisms, including plants, such that carbon's capture in photosynthesis is increased, its usefulness in the soil as a rooting medium is prolonged, and its subsequent immobilization in the process of sequestration ameliorates the rate of increase in carbon dioxide concentration in the global atmosphere.

Assessing the productivity function of soils. A review

“…Available soil water is a prerequisite for plant growth. In all climates suitable for agriculture, the water storage capacity of soils is a crucial property for soil functionality including the productivity function (AG Boden, 2005;Shaxson, 2006;Jones et al, 2009). It is closely correlated with crop yields (Harrach, 1982;Wong and Asseng, 2006).…”

“…Farmers and gardeners do this in an individual, experiencedbased visual-tactile manner. Visual-tactile recognizable soil features like colour, texture, moisture conditions, earthworm casts may serve to evaluate and classify the quality of soil (Shaxson, 2006).…”

“…Over the past decades, the interest in soil structure evaluation as a diagnostic tool for assessments of dynamic, e.g management-induced, soil quality has been recognised and has evolved (Shepherd, 2000;McKenzie, 2001;Lin et al, 2005;Shaxson, 2006). Methods of visual soil structure examination enable semi-quantitative information for use in extension and monitoring (Shepherd, 2000;McKenzie, 2001) or even modeling (Roger-Estrade et al, 2004,2009).…”

Prospects of effective microorganisms technology in wastes treatment in Egypt

“…At the same time, the informal private waste collectors are rather familiar with waste collection techniques than the other sectors, so as the informal waste recyclers, who may represent the instant market for the sorted recyclable materials [24,25] .…”

Comparison of Growth and yield of dry seeded rice (<em>Oryza sativa</em> L.) in natural and conventional farming systems

“…Issues such as deterioration in soil quality, loss of biodiversity, a declining arable cropping system, poor quality of the products, and the concerns with humans' health have all been relevant to the conventional farming method (Shaxson, 2006).…”