Book overview
The regenerative qualities identified in prehistoric, anthropogenic
Amazonian dark earths suggest that notoriously infertile tropical soils
can be greatly improved. Soil enhancement practices by ancient
Amerindians allowed them to intensively cultivate the land, without
needing to continually clear new fields from forest. As increasing
populations place ever greater pressure on tropical forests, this legacy
of rich, "living" soils warrants further study in the search for
high-yield, land intensive, yet sustainable forms of management. This
volume's international group of contributors provides a variety of
stances centering on aspects of the origin, distribution, variability,
persistence, and use of Amazonian dark earths.
See in particular page 15:
Will have to buy (Amazon.com $115.17 4092 ratings) to see pages 13 and
14, part of which is included below:
"...capacity and thus soil fertility. This again promotes primary plant
productivity and so on. This theory is supported by the higher carbon
and nitrogen mineralization potential of terra preta soils in comparison
with surrounding infertile soils, promoting a continuous nutrient supply
for plant growth (Glaser 1999) if the system is managed in a subsidiary
instead of an exploitative manner.
2.5
Conclusions
The existence of terra preta soils underlined by the above-mentioned
results proves that it is possible to convert degraded Oxisols into
sustainable fertile soils. Future investigations should focus on the
identification of land-use practices of the pre-Colunbian population
and on the implementation of this knowledge in order to produce new
terra preta ("Terra Preta Nova") sites."
It sounds like their farming method led to exponential accumulation of
nutrients and carbon in these terra preta, improved Oxisol, soils.
That is something to think about.