Biokohle im Boden reduziert Treibhausgasemissionen

Biokohle im Boden reduziert Treibhausgasemissionen: "

„Durch die Erhöhung der Wasserspeicherkapazität und der Bindung der Nährstoffe wird die Fruchtbarkeit des Bodens erhöht, die Emission von Treibhausgasen reduziert und mehr Kohlenstoff im Boden gespeichert“"

Umweltmikrobiologen der Universität Tübingen untersuchen, wie mikrobielle Lebensgemeinschaften die Erzeugung klimaschädlicher Gase verringern können.

Durch das Einbringen von Biokohle in landwirtschaftlich genutzte Böden lässt sich die Zusammensetzung und Aktivität der Bodenmikroorganismen so verändern, dass Emissionen des Treibhausgases Distickstoffmonoxid, auch Lachgas genannt, verringert werden.

Climatefarming - the future of agriculture www.climatefarming.org

Julia Roberts Joins Chime For Change Catapult Charities (Vogue.com UK)

Julia Roberts Global Ambassador of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves.

Julia Roberts Joins Chime For Change Catapult Charities (Vogue.com UK): "Global Ambassador of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves."

JULIA ROBERTS has joined Beyoncé Knowles and Frida Giannini as Chime For Change's latest Catapult Curator.

The role sees each star choose one philanthropic cause that particularly resonates with them and then select organisations to raise money for with the initiative's crowdfunding partner Catapult.org. Roberts was particularly moved by the number of people dying because of harmful cooking smoke, and serves as Global Ambassador of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves read at: 

http://www.vogue.co.uk/news/2013/09/26/julia-roberts-joins-chime-for-change-catapult-charities

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allAfrica.com: Nigeria: Can Bamboo Address Deforestation and Erosion in Nigeria? (Page 1 of 2)

Every year, according to statistics from the Centre for International Forestry Research, Africa loses forest cover equal to the size of Switzerland and Nigeria alone is estimated to lose about 350,000 - 4000,000 ha of its forest reserve annually and this is regarded as one of the highest rates of deforestation in the world.

As the trees across the country vanish, the land dries; the soil erodes and becomes barren leading to low agricultural yield, alarming desert encroachment, desertification and uncontrollable erosion.

Experts at a recent meeting on the state of the nation's forest identified firewood and charcoal as the leading drivers of deforestation but the country lacked alternatives to firewood and charcoal which have become the energy sources for middle class and low income Nigerians especially those in the rural areas.

A lot of propositions have been advanced as options government should consider in addressing the drivers of deforestation and this include the need to articulate policy framework that address the out-dated forest laws in operations in the country, better mechanism for the implementation/enforcement of best forest management practices, reduce firewood and charcoal consumption and forest tenure system for local communities.

However, Mr Badru Ola Muyideen of the forest department of the Federal Ministry of Environment is of the view that the introduction and massive cultivation of bamboo remained Nigeria's best option to reduce deforestation, address desertification as well as cushion the impact of climate change on Nigeria.

According to him, bamboo can serve as firewood and can be burnt as charcoal. "This way we don't have to cut down trees which take forever to grow but we can harvest bamboo yearly and use it as we want."

Bamboo is a common plant which the country is currently not exploiting in the quest to address the mirage of environmental challenges confronting the country.

read at:

allAfrica.com: Nigeria: Can Bamboo Address Deforestation and Erosion in Nigeria? (Page 1 of 2):

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Biochar reduces nasty nitrous oxide emissions on farms

Biochar reduces nasty nitrous oxide emissions on farms

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By

Blaine Friedlander

Blaine Friedlander/Cornell Chronicle
Cornell scientists have found that biochar mitigates the presence of nitrous oxide in agricultural soils. An array of soils and biochar populates Johannes Lehmann's office desk. Bottled Terra Preta and Hatahara soils, left, join Cornell food and hazelnut biochars in his collection.
In the quest to decrease the world’s greenhouse gases, Cornell scientists have discovered that biochar – a charcoal-like substance – reduces the nemesis nitrous oxide from agricultural soil on average by about 55 percent and stanches emissions into the atmosphere. The research is reported in the new journal from Nature, Scientific Reports, April 25.

“We investigated the mechanics of denitrification, with particular attention to the climate-relevant nitrous oxide by adding biochar to agricultural soils,” says senior author Johannes Lehmann, Cornell professor of soil science. “Biochar consistently reduced nitrous oxide emission in agricultural soils.”

Carbon dioxide has a quiet, but strong partner in climate-warming crime – nitrous oxide. This nasty gas is usually produced on farms from animal manure waste and the use of synthetic fertilizer. In fact, nitrous oxide in agricultural soil has 298 times more global warming potential than carbon dioxide.


Provided
Johannes Lehmann, Cornell professor of soil science.
“Hence the importance to reduce emissions,” says Lehmann.

Agriculture in the United States accounted for almost 58 percent of all nitrous oxide emissions from 2003 to 2007, according to World Bank data, and almost 59 percent from 2008 to 2012. Generally, about 60 percent of all global nitrous oxide emissions come from agriculture, and about half of the greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture come from nitrous oxide.

“Despite this large importance of nitrous oxide for greenhouse gas emissions, there are very few strategies to mitigate the emissions in agriculture, compared to carbon sequestration in soils,” says Lehmann.

First author Maria Luz Cayuela, a former Cornell postdoctoral researcher in Lehmann’s lab and now at the Universidad de Murcia, Spain, led the study. The soils and the biochar spanned a wide array of types. Some soils studied were acidic, others neutral; some were sandy, others filled with clay. The researchers examined soils rich in organic carbon, while other soils possessed low carbon amounts.

No matter the soil type or the biochar type the scientists used, a universal truth emerged: the emission of nitrous oxide was always reduced on average by about 55 percent, compared to benign nitrogen gas.

The study, “Biochar and Denitrification in Soils: When, How Much and Why Does Biochar Reduce N2O Emissions,” was also co-authored by researchers Miguel Angel Sanchez-Monedero and Asuncion Roig, Universidad de Murcia; and Cornell technicians Kelly Hanley and Akio Enders

This work was funded by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, European Union Marie Curie Fellowship, U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Science Foundation and the Fondation des Fondateurs through the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future.

Ithaka-Journal für Terroirwein, Biodiversität und Klimafarming » Blog Archiv » Pflanzenkohle als Baustoff für optimales Raumklima

Ithaka-Journal für Terroirwein, Biodiversität und Klimafarming » Blog Archiv » Pflanzenkohle als Baustoff für optimales Raumklima: "Pflanzenkohle als Baustoff für optimales Raumklima

von Hans-Peter Schmidt Artikel weiterempfehlen

Pflanzenkohle-Lehmputze für den Wohnraum Die Technologie der Gebäudesanierung mit Pflanzenkohle-Lehm-Gemischen, die das Delinat-Institut für Weinkeller entwickelt hat, lässt sich auch auf sonstige Räume wie Lebensmittellager, Ställe, Lagerhallen und nicht zuletzt auch auf Wohnräume übertragen. Denn gerade in Wohn- und Büroräumen hat eine optimale Luftfeuchtigkeit größten Einfluss auf das Wohlbefinden und die Gesundheit der Bewohner. Luftfeuchtigkeit unter 40% führt zum Austrocknen der Schleimhäute, was das Erkältungs-, Asthma- und Allergierisiko erhöht. Luftfeuchtigkeit über 70% führt in geschlossenen Wohnräumen zur erhöhten Belastung mit Schimmelsporen. Bereits eine zwei Zentimeter dicke Schicht eines Pflanzenkohle-Lehm-Putzes kann das Klima eines Wohnraumes merklich verbessern. Im Wallis wurden bereits zwei Häuser im Innenbereich mit Pflanzenkohle-Putzen restauriert. Die ersten Erfahrungen mit dem Wohnkomfort sind äußerst vielversprechend.

- See more at: http://www.ithaka-journal.net/pflanzenkohle-als-baustoff-fur-optimales-raumklima#sthash.CEteU5Yk.dpuf


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Agroforestry Offers Solutions to World Hunger

The Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO, recently released new guidelines to promote agroforestry.  It says this often neglected sector of agriculture, that combines forestry with agriculture, is crucial to the livelihoods and food security of millions of people. 

Agroforestry Offers Solutions to World Hunger:

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BusinessMirror - Sahel region learning to reap benefits of shade

Sahel region learning to reap benefits of shade

WASHINGTON, D.C.—In Africa’s Sahel region, agroforestry techniques using traditional plantings known as “fertilizer trees” to increase soil fertility, as well as harvesting and grazing regulations, are offering new solutions to both food and human security.

Such approaches were nearly lost in recent decades following devastating droughts in the Sahel. Now they are making a belated but welcome comeback. According to a 2012 US Geological Survey, “regeneration agroforestry” in the Sahel stands at over 5 million hectares of agricultural fields newly covered by trees—and growing.

“Agroforestry is the future of agriculture in the drylands and sub-humid regions,” Chris Reij, a senior fellow at the World Resources Institute, a Washington-based think tank, told IPS. “In southern Niger, for instance, farmers have improved millions of hectares of land through regenerating and multiplying valuable trees whose roots already lay beneath their land.”


Details Category: Agri-Commodities Published on Tuesday, 19 February 2013 18:46 Written by Joe Hitchon / Inter Press Service read at: BusinessMirror - Sahel region learning to reap benefits of shade: