Carbon is the currently of the soil-plant ecosystem and when we fix the carbon cycle by putting carbon back into the soil there are multiple benefits. Without organic matter (carbon) soil is just sand or dirt, compacted rock crumbs with inaccessible nutrients trapped inside its lifeless form. It repels rain water, which just runs off and is lost.
One of the exciting things about the world of soil microbiology is that we still know so little and we are learning all the time. For many years we thought that carbon built up in soils from the breaking down of decomposing surface matter. The problem with this form of soil carbon sequestration is that it is not stable: the...
For humans arguably the single most important process on the planet is photosynthesis. Without it humans could not survive. Photosynthesis is the source of all the world's energy. Yes that petrol you pour into the tank of your car and that coal that drives our power turbines it all came from photosynthesis 100s of millions of years ago. And of...
