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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Controlled burns (probably off topic)

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  • From: Geoffrey Tolle <Gtolle0709@wowway.com>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Controlled burns (probably off topic)
  • Date: Sun, 06 Feb 2011 19:03:11 -0500

I'd also like to point out that biochar is formed by the incomplete combustion of organic matter. While the periodic prairie burns do relatively completely burn the surface "grass", the root masses, protected as they are by soil and other organic matter will tend to incompletely combust. Over the millenia, even a little biochar after each burn will build up.

Geoffrey Tolle

On 2/6/11 4:14 AM, Douglas Woodard wrote:
The consensus on the black soils of the U.S. midwest is that they were formed by the massive root systems of (especially tallgrass) prairie and savanna grasses and other plants, and the residue of thousands of years of the seasonal growth and decay of the roots of these plant communities, which are maintained by fire.

The fire is encouraged by seasonal dryness, and by cyclical droughts every few decades, which also kill trees.

Such grasses are adept at drawing stored nutrients into the roots for the dormant season leaving mostly cellulose above ground, to minimize the loss from burning.

[Deletions]

Doug Woodard
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada





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