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Grittyville, WA

Pasture management: if you burn grass residue and lose that carbon (dioxide) to the atmosphere it increases the carbon in the soil. Say what??? 2 minus 1 = 3 ? This is impossible.

Its so anti-intuitive: The way it works is, the grass becomes so much healthier, and with the photosynthesis is unimpeded by the residue, the increased amount of root exudates (sugars containing carbon) will exceed the amount of carbon that was burned off.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=usDReUQejSc

Watch @ 37 minutes.

And the next question would be, what if burning causes a net fertilizer gain too? If, despite the system losing a small bit of nitrogen when the residue is burned, the soil and plants gain atmospheric nitrogen more efficiently thereafter? Again this would be anti intuitive.

"Burning grass helps capture carbon"... well, nothing can surprise me now. Maybe Al Gore really did invent the internet :)

[Last edit: 01/02/25 6:14:36 AM]

1/2/2025 5:59:47 AM