Secret behind Amazonian 'dark earth' could help speed up forest restoration across the globe

Adding Amazonian dark earth to soils boosts plant growth, shows study

Peer-Reviewed Publication

FRONTIERS

 

IMAGE: AMAZONIAN DARK EARTH (ADE) SOIL PROFILE. NOTE THAT THERE IS A BLACK AND A YELLOW LAYER. ADE CORRESPONDS ONLY TO THE BLACK LAYER view more 

CREDIT: LUÍS FELIPE GUANDALIN ZAGATTO

Between approximately 450 BCE and 950 CE, millions of Amerindian people living in today’s Amazonia transformed the originally poor soil through various processes. Over many human generations, soils were enriched with charcoal from their low-intensity fires for cooking and burning refuse, animal bones, broken pottery, compost, and manure. The result is Amazonian dark earth (ADE) or terra preta, exceptionally fertile because rich in nutrients and stable organic matter derived from charcoal, which gives it its black color.

Now, scientists from Brazil show that ADE could be a ‘secret weapon’ to boost reforestation – not only in the Amazon, where 18% or approximately 780,000 km2 has been lost since the 1970s – but around the world. The results are published in Frontiers in Soil Science.

“Here we show that the use of ADEs can enhance the growth of pasture and trees due  to their high levels of nutrients, as well as to the presence of beneficial bacteria and archaea in the soil microbial community,” said joint lead author Luís Felipe Zagatto, a graduate student at the Center for Nuclear Energy in Agriculture of São Paulo University, Brazil.

“This means that knowledge of the ‘ingredients’ that make ADEs so very fertile could be applied to help speed up ecological restoration projects.”

Mimicking reforestation in miniature

The researchers conducted controlled experiments to mimic the ecological succession and changes to the soil that happen when pasture in deforested areas is actively restored to forest. Their aim was to study how ADEs, or ultimately soils of which the microbiome has been artificially composed to imitate them, can boost this process.

Zagatto and colleagues sampled ADE from the Caldeirão Experimental Research Station in the Brazilian state of Amazonas, and as a control, agricultural soil from the Luiz de Queiróz Superior School of Agriculture in the state of São Paulo. They filled each of 36 four-liter pots with 3kg soil, inside a greenhouse with a mean temperature of 34ºC to anticipate global warming beyond current temperatures in Amazonia between 22 and 28ºC.

One-third of the pots received only control soil, another third a 4:1 mixture of control soil and ADE, and another third 100% ADE. To imitate pasture, they planted seeds of palisade grass (Urochloa brizantha), common forage for livestock in Brazil, in each pot and allowed its seedlings to grow for 60 days. They then cut the grass and let only its roots remain in the soil – virgin territory for reforestation in miniature. The researchers then replanted each of the three soils with tree seeds: either with the colonizing species Ambay pumpwood (Cecropia pachystachya), with Peltophorum dubium typical of secondary forests, or with cedro blanco (Cedrela fissilis), typical of climax forest.

The seeds were allowed to germinate, and the seedlings to grow for 90 days, after which the height, dry mass, and extension of the roots were measured. The scientists quantified changes in the soil’s pH, texture, and concentration of organic matter, potassium, calcium, magnesium, aluminium, sulfur, boron, copper, iron, and zinc over the course of the experiment. With molecular methods, they also measured changes in microbial diversity in the soil.

Rich in nutrients and beneficial microbes

At the start, ADEs showed greater amounts of nutrients than control soil: for example, 30 times more phosphorus and three to five times more of each of the other measured nutrients, except manganese. ADE also had a higher pH and contained more sand and silt, but less clay. After the experiment, soils contained less nutrients than at the start, reflecting take-up by the plants, but 100% ADE soils remained richer in these than control soils, while nutrient levels were intermediate in 20% ADE soils.

Throughout the experiment, 20% or 100% ADE soils supported a greater biodiversity of bacteria and archaea than control soils.

“Microbes transform chemical soil particles into nutrients that can be taken up by plants. Our data showed that ADE contains microorganisms that are better at this transformation of soils, thus providing more resources for plant development,” said joint lead author Anderson Santos de Freitas.

“For example, ADE soils contained more beneficial taxa of the bacterial families Paenibacillaceae, Planococcaceae, Micromonosporaceae, and Hyphomicroblaceae.”

Growth boosted

The results also showed that adding ADE to soil improved the growth and development of plants. For example, the dry mass of palisade grass was increased 3.4 times in 20% ADE, and 8.1 times in 100% ADE, compared to in control soil. Addition of ADE also boosted the growth of the three tree species: seedlings of cedro blanco and P. dubium were 2.1 and 5.2 times taller in 20% ADE, and 3.2 and 6.3 times taller in 100% ADE, compared to in control soils. Ambay pumpwood didn’t even grow in control soils or 20% ADE, but thrived in 100% ADE.

The researchers concluded that ADE can boost plant growth. “Our data point to a mixture of soil nutrients and adapted microorganisms [in ADE] to improve the establishment of plant trees in restoration,” they wrote.

Senior author Dr Siu Mui Tsai, a professor at the same institute, cautioned: “ADE has taken thousands of years to accumulate and would take an equal time to regenerate in nature if used. Our recommendations aren’t to utilize ADE itself, but rather to copy its characteristics, particularly its microorganisms, for use in future ecological restoration projects.”

Final vases for Cedrela fissilis show differences in growth depending on soil. From left to right: 100% ADE, 20% ADE, Control soil

Final vases for Cecropia pachystachya show differences in growth depending on soil. From left to right: 100% ADE, 20% ADE, Control soil

Final vases for Peltophorum dubium show differences in growth depending on soil. From left to right: 100% ADE, 20% ADE, Control soil

CREDIT

Luís Felipe Guandalin Zagatto

---

JOURNAL

Frontiers in Soil Science

DOI

10.3389/fsoil.2023.1161627 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Amazonian dark earths enhance the establishment of tree species in forest ecological restoration

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

5-May-2023

Indigenous people in South America are twice as likely to die from wildfires

Peer-Reviewed Publication

IOP PUBLISHING

 

IMAGE: AMAZON LANDSCAPE OVERTAKEN BY WILDFIRE WITH A STRONG BLAZE IN THE CENTRE AND A SMOKE-FILLED SKY. view more 

CREDIT: IOP PUBLISHING

A new study, published in IOP Publishing’s journal Environmental Research: Health, reveals that Indigenous people in the Amazon Basin are twice as likely to die prematurely from smoke exposure due to wildfires than the broader South American population. Regions in Peru, Bolivia and Brazil are identified as particular hotspots for smoke exposure, with mortality rates rising to as high as 6 times that of the general population. 

The results show that smoke from wildfires in South America account for approximately 12,000 premature deaths every year from 2014 to 2019, with approximately 230 of these deaths occurring in Indigenous territories. Exposure to harmful smoke particles is found to be much higher during the Amazonian dry season, from July to November each year, when wildfires more than double the increase in PM2.5 concentrations. 

Dr Eimy Bonilla, lead author of the study, says: “While Indigenous territories account for relatively few fires in the Amazon Basin, our research shows that the people living in these territories experience significantly greater health risks from smoke particles, compared to the general population.” 

Previous research in the field focuses on the health impacts of countries on larger scales or is heavily reliant on hospital admission data. This does not accurately highlight the impact on people living in indigenous territories as they are often located much closer to the fires, are exposed to smoke particles for longer periods of time, and lack access to appropriate medical care, hygiene materials, and clean water. The new study, led by researchers at Harvard University, uses a combination of atmospheric chemical transport models and an updated concentration response function to estimate the rate of premature mortality for Indigenous populations exposed to high concentrations of PM2.5. 

In recent years, the rate of biomass burning in South America has surged. This surge is driven by forest degradation due to human activity (such as mining, logging, and agricultural land use) as well as variations in climate conditions. Wildfires release tiny smoke particles called PM2.5, which are known to significantly contribute to aerosol concentrations and negatively impact human health. Exposure to these particles can result in cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, cancer, premature births, metabolic dysfunction, and other physiological symptoms. Smoke particles from biomass burning in the Amazon Basin travel great distances, affecting air quality across several countries in South America.  

“These fires are having a disproportionate impact on people living in Indigenous territories. With longer exposure times, and limited access to medical attention, Indigenous populations are at much greater risk of death from fires,” says Bonilla. “We recommend that governments provide financial assistance to monitor air quality in these regions, supplying low-cost sensors to study the impact of short- and long-term exposure to the smoke.” 

---

JOURNAL

Environmental Research Health

DOI

10.1088/2752-5309/acb22b 

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Health impacts of smoke exposure in South America: Increased risk for populations in the Amazonian Indigenous territories

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

4-May-2023

Conservative activist arranged for Clarence Thomas' wife to get secret payouts: report

David McAfee
May 4, 2023,

Virginia Thomas, conservative activist and wife of Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, leaves for a break during a closed-door meeting with House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol, on Capitol Hill September 29, 2022 in Washington, DC.

 (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Clarence Thomas' wife, "Ginni" Thomas, reportedly received tens of thousands of dollars for consulting work, and her name was intentionally left off of the paperwork.

Ginni Thomas received the funds from conservative activist Leonard Leo—who has also helped former President Donald Trump select judicial nominees—according to the Washington Post's investigation. The news comes at a time when Clarence Thomas himself is under fire for reportedly receiving undisclosed gifts.

Leo made the arrangements through former Trump Administration official Kellyanne Conway, according to the Washington Post's report.

"In January 2012, Leo instructed the GOP pollster Kellyanne Conway to bill a nonprofit group he advises and use that money to pay Virginia 'Ginni' Thomas, the documents show," according to the report. "The same year, the nonprofit, the Judicial Education Project, filed a brief to the Supreme Court in a landmark voting rights case."

The investigation further uncovered the circumstances surrounding how the payments were made secret.

"Leo, a key figure in a network of nonprofits that has worked to support the nominations of conservative judges, told Conway that he wanted her to 'give' Ginni Thomas 'another $25K,' the documents show. He emphasized that the paperwork should have 'No mention of Ginni, of course,'" according to the Washington Post.

The Polling Company, Conway's firm, reportedly sent the Judicial Education Project a $25,000 bill, and listed the reason only as "Supplement for Constitution Polling and Opinion Consulting."

"In all, according to the documents, the Polling Company paid Thomas’s firm, Liberty Consulting, $80,000 between June 2011 and June 2012, and it expected to pay $20,000 more before the end of 2012," according to the Washington Post's investigation. "The documents reviewed by The Post do not indicate the precise nature of any work Thomas did for the Judicial Education Project or the Polling Company.

In a statement, Leo reportedly told The Post that, “Knowing how disrespectful, malicious and gossipy people can be, I have always tried to protect the privacy of Justice Thomas and Ginni.”

Michael Fanone claims CNN declined to run op-ed critical of network for hosting Trump town hall

Gideon Rubin
May 4, 2023

Washington Metropolitan Police Department Officer Michael Fanone testifies during the House select committee hearing on the Jan. 6 attack on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, July 27, 2021. - Andrew Harnik/Pool/TNS

CNN contributor and former U.S. Capitol Police Officer Michael Fanone alleges the network declined to run an op-ed critical of its decision to host a Donald Trump town hall next week, Puck News reports.

The cable network is scheduled to host the town hall May 10. CNN Anchor Kaitlan Collins will moderate the event.

Fanone, who was badly beaten in the Jan. 6 insurrection, blasted the network for giving the former president who is currently under investigation for his role in the attack on the Capitol. Fanone received an electrical shock to his neck and was beaten with a flagpole in the attack on the Capitol.

Fanone told Puck News that “allowing Donald Trump an open forum on a major television news network is the moral equivalent of putting an AR-15 in the hands of someone mentally unstable.”

Puck reports that the Trump town hall is part of CNN chairman and C.E.O. Chris Licht’s efforts to broaden its audience to attract more conservative and centrist viewers.

Fanone also pitched the op-ed to The New York Times and The Washington Post and offered to participate in a debate.

Airing the Trump town hall reflects the challenges networks face in presenting a diversity of opinions in politically polarized times.

Puck’s Dylan Byers writes: “Of course, there’s no way for Licht to reposition CNN as a nonpartisan, all-voices-welcome mass-market news network without treating Trump the same way the network treats the other candidates. Surreal as it may be, Trump is the Republican frontrunner, and that is a fact all media organizations have to reckon with."

“Indeed, one of Licht’s primary critiques of his predecessor, Jeff Zucker, has been the way he programmed the Trump show, first enabling the candidate’s early stardom with empty podium footage and then repositioning as the network de la resistance against the president and all his perfidy. But that critique arguably under-appreciates just how challenging it is to cover a candidate who lies and misleads with apparent impunity and nevertheless commands the loyalty of at least a third of the nation.

“Licht will now be forced to wrestle with that challenge first hand, and he will have to walk a fine line: remaining noncombative while also adhering to basic journalistic principles of accountability in truth—and, of course, making it interesting enough to command an audience that, one year in, doesn’t seem particularly excited about what he’s selling. Good luck.”

SOLIDARITY

Drew Barrymore drops out of hosting MTV Movie & TV Awards in support of writers strike

2023/05/04

Drew Barrymore attends the 2022 Paramount Upfront at 666 Madison Avenue on May 18, 2022, in New York City. - Michael Loccisano/Getty Images North America/TNS

Drew Barrymore will no longer be hosting the upcoming MTV Movie & TV Awards in support of the ongoing writers strike. However, she agreed to host next year’s ceremony.

Variety first reported Barrymore’s decision.

“I have listened to the writers, and in order to truly respect them, I will pivot from hosting the MTV Movie & TV Awards live in solidarity with the strike,” Barrymore said in a statement. “Everything we celebrate and honor about movies and television is born out of their creation. And until a solution is reached, I am choosing to wait but I’ll be watching from home and hope you will join me.”

“I thank MTV, who has truly been some of the best partners I have ever worked with,” Barrymore continued. “I can’t wait to be a part of this next year, when I can truly celebrate everything that MTV has created, which is a show that allows fans to choose who the awards go to and is truly inclusive.”

The awards show, which is still scheduled for Sunday, will instead go forward without a host. The show is also going without a red carpet procession or interviews with the stars as they arrive. Producers are determining which presenters, nominees and guests can and will appear on the broadcast.

The show will still air pre-taped segments that were written and filmed before the WGA strike began on Monday.

The MTV Movie & TV Awards have been hindered in recent years. The 2020 show was moved to the fall because of the COVID-19 epidemic before it was eventually canceled and replaced with a clip show. The 2021 and 2022 shows also faced COVID-related issues.

Bruce Gillmer, executive producer of the MTV Movie & TV Awards, told Variety that Barrymore “has our full support.” Gillmer said the show will still have a live performance, previews of upcoming blockbusters and pre-taped acceptance speeches for some winners.

The award show is the latest to be quickly affected by the nascent writers strike. On Thursday, “Saturday Night Live” announced that it was ending its season early, after already canceling its May 6 episode with former castmate Pete Davidson as host. The late night talk shows with WGA writers on staff have also turned to airing repeats until the guild and studios reach a new agreement.

© New York Daily News

MONOPOLY CAPITALI$M

Newmont Merger Would Create The World's Biggest Gold Miner

By Charles Kennedy - May 04, 2023, 

The board of Australia's Newcrest Mining has recommended the latest takeover offer of bigger sector player Newmont, which last month valued the target company at $19.5 billion.

"The latest offer is one that the board would be prepared to recommend subject to successful due diligence during the period," interim Newcrest chief executive Sherry Duhe said this week, as quoted by Bloomberg.

"This transaction would strengthen our position as the world's leading gold company by joining two of the sector's top senior gold producers and setting the new standard in safe, profitable and responsible mining," Newmont's chief executive TomPalmer said, as quoted by Reuters,  after the announcement of the latest offer.

Newmont first made a non-binding offer for Newcrest in February, which valued the company at $16.9 billion, but Newcrest rejected that as too low. Then the gold miner tried again, sweetening the offer.

If a deal does materialize, it will bring Newmont's gold output much higher—twice as high as the output of its rival, Barrick Gold, according to Reuters. It would also constitute the third-largest deal involving an Australian company as well as the third-largest M&A deal this year, the news outlet noted.

According to Bloomberg, the deal would also boost Newmont's presence in copper: the basic metal, which is essential for the energy transition, makes up a quarter of Newcrest's total output at present, but the company wants to boost that to 50% by 2030.

Copper is indispensable for wind and solar farm wiring and for EV engines. Yet supply of the metal is under threat because of insufficient new mining capacity coming on stream and falling ore grades.

Warnings of a looming copper shortage have been multiplying in recent months, but they have not yet made any forecasters budge on their expectations of an EV boom combined with a wind and solar boom.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

Visualizing 200 Years Of Gold Mining Around The World

By ZeroHedge - May 04, 2023

• The best-known gold rush in modern history occurred in California in 1848.
• 
  
• South Africa’s Witwatersrand is considered one of the world’s greatest-ever goldfields.
• 
  
• Around 31% of the world’s gold production in 2022 came from three countries—China, Russia, and Australia.

Although the practice of gold mining has been around for thousands of years, it’s estimated that roughly 86% of all above-ground gold was extracted in the last 200 years.

With modern mining techniques making large-scale production possible, global gold production has grown exponentially since the 1800s.

In the infographic below, Visual Capitalist's Govind Bhutada and Miranda Smith, using data from Our World in Data, visualizes global gold production by country from 1820 to 2022, showing how gold mining has evolved to become increasingly global over time.

A Brief History of Gold Mining

The best-known gold rush in modern history occurred in California in 1848, when James Marshall discovered gold in Sacramento Valley. As word spread, thousands of migrants flocked to California in search of gold, and by 1855, miners had extracted around $2 billion worth of gold.

The United States, Australia, and Russia were (interchangeably) the three largest gold producers until the 1890s. Then, South Africa took the helm thanks to the massive discovery in the Witwatersrand Basin, now regarded today as one of the world’s greatest ever goldfields.

South Africa’s annual gold production peaked in 1970 at 1,002 tonnes—by far the largest amount of gold produced by any country in a year.

With the price of gold rising since the 1980s, global gold production has become increasingly widespread. By 2007, China was the world’s largest gold-producing nation, and today a significant quantity of gold is being mined in over 40 countries.

The Top Gold-Producing Countries in 2022

Around 31% of the world’s gold production in 2022 came from three countries—China, Russia, and Australia, with each producing over 300 tonnes of the precious metal.

North American countries Canada, the U.S., and Mexico round out the top six gold producers, collectively making up 16% of the global total. The state of Nevada alone accounted for 72% of U.S. production, hosting the world’s largest gold mining complex (including six mines) owned by Nevada Gold Mines.

Meanwhile, South Africa produced 110 tonnes of gold in 2022, down by 74% relative to its output of 430 tonnes in 2000. This long-term decline is the result of mine closures, maturing assets, and industrial conflict, according to the World Gold Council.

Interestingly, two smaller gold producers on the list, Uzbekistan and Indonesia, host the second and third-largest gold mining operations in the world, respectively.

The Outlook for Global Gold Production

As of April 25, gold prices were hovering around the $2,000 per ounce mark and nearing all-time highs. For mining companies, higher gold prices can mean more profits per ounce if costs remain unaffected.

According to the World Gold Council, mined gold production is expected to increase in 2023 and could surpass the record set in 2018 (3,300 tonnes), led by the expansion of existing projects in North America. The chances of record mine output could be higher if gold prices continue to increase.

By Zerohedge.com

Norway Set To Accelerate Arctic Oil And Gas Drilling

By Tsvetana Paraskova - May 03, 2023

Companies operating in the Norwegian Continental Shelf are planning for more drilling in the Arctic areas in the Barents Sea, encouraged by Norway’s government which wants more oil and gas discoveries to boost energy security and help European partners with energy supply.

At a conference on the Barents Sea in Hammerfest last week, Norway’s Petroleum and Energy Minister Terje Aasland called on oil and gas companies to fulfill their “social responsibility” and “leave no stone unturned” to find more natural gas resources in the Barents Sea, the area estimated to hold most of Norway’s undiscovered oil and gas resources.  

“The petroleum adventure in the north has only just started,” Aasland said, adding that the government would help the Barents Sea industry as Norway must develop, not liquidate, its petroleum industry.

Apart from being in a harsher environment so far north, the Barents Sea poses another roadblock to developing oil and gas resources—the north lacks the infrastructure in the more developed areas on the shelf that would make tie-ups and resource development easier.  

Still, operators are not giving up.

“Even if we want to maintain production, we have to explore more, we have to find more,” Torger Rod, CEO of Barents-focused energy producer Var Energi, told Bloomberg in an interview.

In March, Var Energi confirmed an oil discovery in the Countach well in a production license northwest of Hammerfest near Goliat, one of two operational oil and gas fields in the Barents Sea.

Var Energi will consider potential commercial development options and tie-in of the discovery to Goliat FPSO.

“This discovery is yet another in a series of successful exploration wells in the Barents Sea in recent years, including Lupa – the largest discovery on the Norwegian shelf in 2022. At the same time, the discovery confirms our exploration strategy and our position in the area,” said Rune Oldervoll, EVP Exploration and Production in Var Energi.

Equinor, which plans to start production from the Johan Castberg field in the Barents Sea at the end of 2024, is also betting on obtaining more licenses in the Arctic.

Early this year, the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy proposed including additional areas in the Norwegian Sea and the Barents Sea in the next licensing round for Awards in Predefined Areas (ARA) expected to be awarded in early 2024.  

“The North has always been important for us,” Grete Birgitte Haaland, senior vice president for exploration and production north at Equinor, told Bloomberg.

“We want to explore more and we think we will find more.”  

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com