Biochar opportunities: Building soil resilience while reducing wildfire, insects and diseases
More than two-thirds of the worlds’ soils have been degraded through the loss of soil organic matter and risk losing productivity. When soil organic matter is low, ecosystems are at risk for drought stress, wildfire risk, or insect and disease infestations. Therefore, restoring soils by adding carbon- rich materials such as biochar can boost soil carbon and increase both soil and ecosystem health. increased soil stewardship can reduce carbon emissions by at least 5.5 gigatons of CO2 per year (15% of or current annual emissions) and healthy soils are able to hold more water and nutrients, reduce soil compaction, decrease invasive species, and promote microbial diversity. Biochar can benefit forest, range, mine, and agricultural soils and can be a carbon game-changer to mitigate climate change. Forest restoration activities that reduce standing tree volume through small diameter thinning operations produce large volumes of low (or no) value woody residues that can be converted to biochar on-site or at centralized processing facilities. In addition, higher value biochar could be transported to local farmers to build agricultural soil carbon for greater crop productivity and food security or used in livestock pens to reduce leaching and runoff while producing a high- value fertilizer. This paper will discuss forest managements’ role in reducing wildfire, insect, and disease risk and the contributions of biochar to soil health and resilience. Keywords: soil health, drought, climate change, microbial diversity ID: 3602348
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| Format: | Article biblioteca |
| Language: | English |
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FAO ;
2022
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| Online Access: | https://openknowledge.fao.org/handle/20.500.14283/CC1629EN http://www.fao.org/3/cc1629en/cc1629en.pdf |
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