"4 PER 1000" SOIL CARBON SCIENCE WEBINAR SERIES #1: Is There a Limit to Soil Carbon Sequestration?

"4 PER 1000" PRESENTS SOIL CARBON SCIENCE WEBINAR SERIES #1:
Join us for an insightful webinar on the role of soil organic carbon (SOC) in maintaining soil functions and mitigating climate change. SOC plays a vital role in crop production, nutrient and water cycling, carbon storage, and habitat for soil biodiversity. The formation of Mineral Associated Organic Carbon (MAC) is crucial for climate change mitigation. While the assumption is that soils cannot accumulate MAOC, a recent study challenges this notion, prompting further mechanistic investigations.
In this first episode, we are delighted to have two esteemed experts in the field, Prof. M. Francesca Cotrufo from Colorado State University and Dr. Christopher Poeplau from the Thünen Institute of Climate-Smart Agriculture, who will discuss this topic during the webinar. They will be joined by Prof. Claire Chenu and Budiman Minasny in a discussion to gain valuable insights and discuss the formation of MAOC, its implications for soil carbon management, and the potential impact on climate change mitigation strategies. Don't miss this opportunity to engage with leading researchers in the field.

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There is no reason to reach peak sequestration. The Carbon Cycle is not a clean orderly process. Some soil must be dead so that other soils can thrive. Attempting to quantify the maximum capacity of soil to store carbon will undermine the goal of storing atmospheric carbon in living ecosystems. The Amazon's soil, for example is nearly all void of nutrients. Life is what stores the carbon. And Life has its own roadmap we don't understand yet. We have to be willing to allow a natural ecosystem to develop.
The act of measurement will change the results, in many unforeseeable ways. And quite a few foreseeable ways we would do well to avoid if at all possible. There's 1500 gigatons of potential carbon storage in the diminished farmlands of North America. Attempting to put the maximum amount of carbon into each individual acre in order to minimize land use will, in fact, destroy the ecosystems that would otherwise develop into semi-permanent carbon storage.
Natural fertilizers (worm castings) need to be spread thinly and in small batches over millions of acres for a period of several years. Too thick and rot develops. Too thin and the organic material dries up and blows away. And it must be done in small batches on the scale of a 3-5 acre farm to avoid rot, gassing, and catastrophic collapse of the worm populations.
It works out to be a very simple farming model. You feed livestock, mix their waste with a proper mix of organics to feed worms, then spread the fresh castings over the surface of surrounding land. 5 acres and 3 years at a time. After 3 years you turn the land over to a management service that appropriately curates a sustainable semi-wild ecosystem between connected wild lands or permaculture farm model.
Life is the solution to the carbon crisis. We simply have to repair a small amount of the harm to global life our agriculture industry has caused. And we need to start processing about 25% of our organic waste back into living soils, properly. This process does not, and cannot scale to an industrial process. It must be done a single small farm at a time, and through simple unskilled human labor. There's absolutely no need consolidate this process or increase its efficacy. We have a billion years of fossil record to prove it works without us.
Or we can keep pretending there's a scientific solution to a natural problem until there is no nature left.