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Maintaining and sustaining soil health
Photo by StockSnap, pixabay.com Talk Dirty to Me By Lewis Ziska Sign up for our monthly newsletter! “OK. There are more living organisms in one tablespoon of soil than there are people living on the earth.” S oil. An immense, churning cauldron of living things: earthworms, all kinds of small arachnids, diverse populations of insects...
A recent study published in Earth’s Future estimated that since farmers began tilling the U.S. central plains 160 years ago, over 57 billion metric tons of topsoil have been lost 2( Figure 1). The John Innes Center, an independent research institution focused on plant and microbial science, estimates that it takes 200-400 years to generate 1 cm of new soil —and that’s if you don’t try to grow anything in it 10. Mitigation of Soil Pollutants: The large surface area and porous nature of biochar can also be a factor in adsorbing or retaining toxic heavy metals, reducing their transfer into drinking water sources.
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