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  • From: "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lflj@bellsouth.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] Fwd: Tannins' Surprising Benefits for Soils, Forests and Farms
  • Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2010 14:55:24 -0500



-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Tannins' Surprising Benefits for Soils, Forests and Farms
Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2010 10:02:52 -0500
From: ARS News Service <NewsService@ars.usda.gov>
Reply-To: ARS News Service <NewsService@ars.usda.gov>
To: ARS News subscriber <lflj@bellsouth.net>



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ARS News Service
Agricultural Research Service, USDA
--View this report online, plus photos and related stories, at
www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr
--Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ARSInformation

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*Read the magazine story
<http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/Nov10/tannins1110.htm> to find out
more.*

Photo: Sheep grazing in a pasture of thinned forest. Link to photo information
<http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/graphics/photos/nov10/d1978-1.htm>
ARS scientists are developing recommendations for using tannins—like those in
red wine—to manage agricultural soils,
including those where livestock graze in thinned forests. /Click the image
for more information about it./


For further reading

* Springtime sheep grazing helps control leafy spurge
<http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2009/090929.htm>
* New bacterial species named after ARS scientist
<http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2009/090305.htm>
* Forest-friendly ways to get more from pine
<http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2006/060707.htm>


Tannins' Surprising Benefits for Soils, Forests and Farms

By Don Comis </is/contacts.htm#Don>
November 17, 2010

The tannins that help make good red wine and bright fall colors also may help
make good soil and healthy livestock,
according to U.S. Department of Agriculture
<http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome> (USDA) researchers.

Chemist Javier Gonzalez
<http://www.ars.usda.gov/pandp/people/people.htm?personid=32665> and soil
scientist Jonathan
Halvorson <http://www.ars.usda.gov/pandp/people/people.htm?personid=13151>,
both at the Agricultural Research Service
<http://www.ars.usda.gov/main/main.htm> (ARS) Appalachian Farming Systems
Research Center
<http://www.ars.usda.gov/main/site_main.htm?modecode=19-32-00-00> (AFSRC) in
Beaver, W.Va., are leading a tannin
research project that's now in its fourth year. Results from the studies by
Gonzalez, Halvorson and their colleagues
indicate tannins are important components of agroecosystems that can also
affect production and environmental quality.
ARS is USDA's principal intramural scientific research agency.

The scientists will use their results to develop recommendations for using
tannins to manage soils and silvopastures,
where livestock graze in thinned forests.

Tannins and other phenolic compounds are common in many plants. These
compounds, believed to enter soil from plant roots
and decaying leaves, may also be part of "teas" formed as rain and snowmelt
run down tree bark and drip off the leaves.

The work is being done jointly with chemist Ann Hagerman
<http://chemistry.muohio.edu/index.php/faculty/11-faculty/20-ann-e-hagerman>'s
renowned tannin laboratory at Miami
University <http://www.miami.muohio.edu/> in Oxford, Ohio. The two labs are
combining their capabilities to identify
important features of tannins that determine soil interactions.

Results to date show the rate and amount of binding to soil varied from one
tannin to another. The scientists found that
the binding quality of tannins also can be used to immobilize metals such as
aluminum, lessening the metals' toxic
effects on root growth. Tannin-related phenolics can also free up nutrients
such as calcium for crop use.

The scientists are learning more about how forest soil microbes metabolize
tannins, leading to a better understanding of
the varied ecological functions performed by tannins. The AFSRC scientists
also are studying the nutritional and
deworming potential of tannin-containing forages for goats.

Read more <http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/nov10/tannins1110.htm> about
this research in the November/December
2010 issue of /Agricultural Research/ magazine.

This research was published in /Physiologia Plantarum/
<http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0031-9317>,
and in /Soil Biology & Biochemistry
<http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00380717>/.

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