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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Management Of Silica Biomineralisation In Crops To Enhance Soil Carbon Sequestration In Agro-Ecosystems, Leigh Sullivan, Jeffrey Parr
Management Of Silica Biomineralisation In Crops To Enhance Soil Carbon Sequestration In Agro-Ecosystems, Leigh Sullivan, Jeffrey Parr
Jeffrey Parr
No abstract provided.
Morphological Characteristics Observed In The Leaf Phytolith Of Select Gymnosperms Of Eastern Australia, Jeffrey Parr, Loraine Watson
Morphological Characteristics Observed In The Leaf Phytolith Of Select Gymnosperms Of Eastern Australia, Jeffrey Parr, Loraine Watson
Jeffrey Parr
No abstract provided.
Increasing Long Term Soil Carbon Sequestration In Agriculture And Forestry, Leigh Sullivan, Jeffrey Parr
Increasing Long Term Soil Carbon Sequestration In Agriculture And Forestry, Leigh Sullivan, Jeffrey Parr
Jeffrey Parr
Terrestrial carbon sequestration is fundamental to the global carbon cycle and is being utilised to counter increases in anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions. Although soil organic carbon dominates the terrestrial carbon cycle in terms of total quantity, the long term sequestration of soil organic carbon in the Holocene was relatively low (<1 % of net primary production). Consequently there is a viewpoint that soil has a low carbon storage potential and hence only a relatively minor role to play in countering anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions. Long term (decades to millennia) soil organic carbon sequestration mechanisms are currently thought to be mainly due to the physical protection of chemically recalcitrant organic matter within clays. Recent research is presented here to show that some forms of soil organic carbon (e.g. that occluded in phytoliths) are not readily physically accessible to the agents responsible for decomposition and that these forms also play a major role in long term soil organic carbon sequestration. Phytoliths (literally ‘plant rocks') are silicified features that form as a result of biomineralization within plants. The occlusion of carbon within phytoliths has been recently found to be an important process in the long-term sequestration of terrestrial carbon (Parr & Sullivan, 2005). Moreover, relative to the other soil organic carbon constituents, the carbon occluded in phytoliths (PhytOC) is highly resistant against decomposition. Although comprising < 10 % of the total carbon pool in contemporary topsoils (with ages of < 200 years), the resistance of this carbon fraction against decomposition processes resulted in this carbon fraction comprising 70 % of the total carbon pool in the buried topsoils after decomposition for 3,000 years in soils under grasslands. The carbon in phytoliths is sequestered over the geological time scale rather than the anthropological. Experimental and modelled data presented here indicates that the long term carbon sequestration potential of soil can be increased considerably in areas under managed vegetation (e.g. crops) by the adoption of simple agronomic and silvicultural practices.
Carbon Bio-Sequestration Within The Phytoliths Of Economic Bamboo Species, Jeffrey Parr, Leigh Sullivan, Bihua Chen, Gongfu Ye, Zheng Wiepeng
Carbon Bio-Sequestration Within The Phytoliths Of Economic Bamboo Species, Jeffrey Parr, Leigh Sullivan, Bihua Chen, Gongfu Ye, Zheng Wiepeng
Jeffrey Parr
The rates of carbon bio-sequestration within silica phytoliths of the leaf litter of 10 economically important bamboo species indicates that (a) there is considerable variation in the content of carbon occluded within the phytoliths (PhytOC) of the leaves between different bamboo species, (b) this variation does not appear to be directly related to the quantity of silica in the plant but rather the efficiency of carbon encapsulation by the silica. The PhytOC content of the species under the experimental conditions ranged from 1.6% to 4% of the leaf silica weight. The potential phytolith carbon bio-sequestration rates in the leaf-litter component …