"The big barrier as far as bioenergy crops are concerned is a fear of the unknown in terms of soil carbon losses or gains - this is the gap we are trying to fill, " explained lead researcher Niall McNamara.
BBC: Measuring bioenergy crops' carbon footprint credentials
"At this field site, we are very lucky to have two key bioenergy crops growing side-by-side, which is allowing us to make a comparison of their effects on soil carbon and greenhouse gas emissions from the soil, " he told BBC News.
BBC: Measuring bioenergy crops' carbon footprint credentials
Lehmann, the lead author of the paper which is published in the journal Nature Geosciences, said that the black carbon content of soils in the study ranged from zero to 82 percent of soil organic carbon.
Typically rainfall seeps through the soil, absorbing carbon dioxide and reacting with decaying vegetation.
The concept: When crops are planted without tilling, the soil holds more carbon, which means less goes up into the atmosphere.
The permafrost underneath those trees is melting, exposing deep layers of peat soil that has locked away carbon for thousands of years.
He added that the experiment would provide data on how novel crops, such as miscanthus, introduced carbon into the soil and how stable it was once it was in the ground.
BBC: Measuring bioenergy crops' carbon footprint credentials
We also know that there are negative feedbacks, say, greater plant growth and possibly greater carbon storage in the soil as a result.
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Because it doesn't stir up the soil, it lets the land keep its stored carbon and even adds some, because those corn stalks on the surface gradually become part of the soil.
If there were a real carbon price, farmers would think of their fields in terms of the carbon embodied in crops and soil.
The manner in which we have managed livestock for centuries results in both carbon and water moving from soil to atmosphere, and to soil life being less able to break down methane.
As a congressman, senator and vice president, he worked relentlessly toward creating disincentives to the development, testing and use of innovative, safe and potentially important technologies--especially biotechnology applied to agriculture, which has been instrumental in enhancing yields, reducing losses from pests and encouraging farming practices that prevent carbon dioxide release from tilling soil.
Dr Abrahamson believes that ball-lightning forms when a conventional lightning strike vaporises carbon and silicon oxides found in soil.
Farmers can also add carbon-rich compost to the soil, and plant "cover crops" such as rye or vetch during parts of the year when land otherwise would lie idle.
They will measure the amount of carbon, phosphate and nitrate in the soil, together with the rate of plant growth and microbial decomposition.
Those very herbicide-resistant plants, now grown on more than 220 million acres annually worldwide, have spurred the adoption of more environment-friendly herbicides and agricultural practices--changes that have markedly reduced soil erosion, the runoff of agricultural chemicals and carbon dioxide emissions, and increased yields.
In the 1960s, realizing that only livestock could reverse desertification, I developed a consistently successful grazing planning process that mimics nature using livestock so that both carbon and water move from atmosphere to soil and soil life is more able to break down methane.
In an area of a few tens of square kilometres around this tower, the researchers will place further sensors in the soil and in local streams, to measure temperature, carbon-dioxide and nutrient levels, along with rates of root growth and the activities of microbes.
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In their outdoor laboratory, they set out to measure how much atmospheric carbon the crops were able to lock in the soil.
BBC: Measuring bioenergy crops' carbon footprint credentials
We then follow that carbon which has been fixed by the plant into the soil and into the microbes and back out of the soil.
BBC: Measuring bioenergy crops' carbon footprint credentials
Bolstered by increasing soil moisture, longer growing seasons, warmer winters, and the fertilizing effects of more atmospheric carbon dioxide, crop production continues its long and impressive run of ever-increasing yields as global temperatures warm.
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Many farmers using these seeds have even been able to implement a "no-till" system, which offers tremendous environmental benefits by preventing soil erosion, keeping farm water and chemical run-off out of local watersheds and releasing less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Soil samples from around the stone's socket will be analysed and any organic material found radio-carbon dated if possible.
Last year a Dutch study found that draining Indonesian swamps to make way for oil-palm plantations resulted in 33 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions for each tonne of palm oil produced, by speeding up the decomposition of the peaty soil.
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