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[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

On Jan 31, 2008, at 7:54 AM, Don Bowen KI6DIU wrote:

> As long as the carbon stays below the level of oxygen in the
> soil.  Microbes eat the carbon and emit CO2.  There is a balance  
> between
> CO2 production by decay and carbon production by plant growth.

Right. Apparently there is what I guess might be called a "dead zone"  
where carbon does in fact sit in limbo due to lack of oxygen, at a  
level below typical agricultural activity. It is this area that has  
some people exited about the possibility of carbon sequestration.

It's a lovely idea and I wish it could be proved true. High-organic- 
content soil is good for many reasons: erosion resistance,  
microorganism health, drainage, oxygen pathways, and not least, plant  
food production. We who have been gardening this way for a long time  
know the benefits and wish that industrial agriculture would use it.  
Alas, even if agribusiness embraced the concept, I doubt that the  
condition can be optimized to the point of affecting global  
temperature control.