New source of global nitrogen discovered

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Karl Thidemann

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Apr 10, 2018, 9:49:01 AM4/10/18
to Soil Age
“For centuries, the prevailing science has indicated that all of the nitrogen on Earth available to plants comes from the atmosphere. But a study from the University of California, Davis, indicates that more than a quarter comes from Earth's bedrock.”

More at
https://phys.org/news/2018-04-source-global-nitrogen.html

Karl
Soil4Climate


Erich Knight

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Jun 3, 2018, 8:25:00 AM6/3/18
to Soil Age, se-bi...@googlegroups.com, biochar
Yes, Rock weathering May indeed contribute that large of a percentage of nitrogen, but I seem to remember a study of fixed nitrogen coming from either being fixed into nitrates by either lightning in the atmosphere or microbes in the soil.



Also since most chemical nitrogen , NPK is made nowadays from fossil fuels to fix atmospheric nitrogen, I believe I saw a study that since World War II this was a predominant amount of fixed nitrogen in ecology.

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Thomas Goreau

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Jun 3, 2018, 6:12:24 PM6/3/18
to Soil Age, se-bi...@googlegroups.com, biochar
The claim of new rock nitrogen is very misleading. The soil rock nitrogen is not primary new nitrogen but recycled old nitrogen fixation. This nitrogen is not present as ammonium, nitrate, or nitrogen in rock minerals, but as organic nitrogen in organic matter that has been buried and metamorphosed in sedimentary rocks like shales, which are clays cooked at varying temperature, pressure, and time. 

Thomas J. F. Goreau, PhD
President, Global Coral Reef Alliance
President, Biorock Technology Inc.
Coordinator, Soil Carbon Alliance
Coordinator, United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development Small Island Developing States Partnership in New Sustainable Technologies
37 Pleasant Street, Cambridge, MA 02139
gor...@globalcoral.org
www.globalcoral.org
Skype: tomgoreau
Tel: (1) 617-864-4226

Books:

Geotherapy: Innovative Methods of Soil Fertility Restoration, Carbon Sequestration, and Reversing CO2 Increase
http://www.crcpress.com/product/isbn/9781466595392

Innovative Methods of Marine Ecosystem Restoration
http://www.crcpress.com/product/isbn/9781466557734


David Yarrow

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Jun 3, 2018, 8:42:07 PM6/3/18
to Soils
thanks for answering my first question:
are we talking sedimentary or igneous rocks here?
the only clues i read in the public article is sedimentary.
which are secondary, not primary, nitrogen source.

like P, N is very electron-rich, 
(both have 3 vacant valence electron orbitals)
but lighter weight and smaller, 
thus more reactive & volatile.
very rare to find such small & simple atoms in magmatic matter, 
which is all about density.

i expect any geo-source N to be volatile & quickly become a gas, not a rock, 
especially if formed from high temperature magma.

curious about geologic conditions that create high N levels in rock.
best i know is famous Chilean nitrate, 
which is borderline acceptable for "certified organic," 
and mined in a desert climate.
~dy


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Ronal W. Larson

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Jun 3, 2018, 11:22:07 PM6/3/18
to Thomas Goreau, se-bi...@googlegroups.com, biochar, Soil Age
Tom and cc three lists

Thanks for your clarification.  The article itself (in Science magazine) is very clear on your point;  newness refers to newly recognized.  

I learned a good bit more about nitrogen here (and need to learn much more) - re nitrogen’s (huge) importance in biochar optimization.  This article gives more importance to high latitude biomass - since more nitrogen is available there than in the tropics.  I take this to expand the total global area where biochar can be profitable.

Here is the final paragraph (with a surprising emphasis on carbon storage and climate):

 Lastly, the availability of N singly and in combination with P profoundly limits terrestrial C storage, with nontrivial effects on global climate change (4, 46). Our previous work demonstrated a doubling of ecosystem C storage among temperate conifer forests residing on N-rich bedrock (7). Our model indicates that rock N inputs could make up >29% of total N inputs to boreal forests, which could help to explain the high C uptake capacity observed for this biome and partially mitigate the mismatch of C and N budgets in Earth system models (3). Historically, weathering has been viewed as responsive to CO2 enrichment and climate change over deep geological time (millions of years) (35). The direct connections that we draw between tectonic uplift, N inputs, and weathering reactions therefore emphasize a role for rock-derived nutrients in affecting the 21st-century C cycle and climate system.

Earlier there is also discussion of the role of microbes, fungi and roots - all biochar-related topics.  I wouldn’t say this article intends to promote biochar, but it should remind us that biochar alone doesn’t ever supply enough nitrogen.  There is no discussion in this article of leguminous biomass.

The supplemental (>50 pp) has much more on a detailed model - one of three ways they prove this new understanding of “weathering” (which is mainly microbes and fungi) to release old nitrogen.

Ron

Thomas Goreau

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Jun 4, 2018, 5:12:47 AM6/4/18
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Dear David, 

This message arrived with no content, I’m regenerating coral reefs in Mexico, but have poor internet connections. Can you please send it again?

Best wishes,
Tom

Thomas J. F. Goreau, PhD
President, Global Coral Reef Alliance
President, Biorock Technology Inc.
Coordinator, Soil Carbon Alliance
Coordinator, United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development Small Island Developing States Partnership in New Sustainable Technologies
37 Pleasant Street, Cambridge, MA 02139
gor...@globalcoral.org
www.globalcoral.org
Skype: tomgoreau
Tel: (1) 617-864-4226

Books:

Geotherapy: Innovative Methods of Soil Fertility Restoration, Carbon Sequestration, and Reversing CO2 Increase
http://www.crcpress.com/product/isbn/9781466595392

Innovative Methods of Marine Ecosystem Restoration
http://www.crcpress.com/product/isbn/9781466557734


On Jun 3, 2018, at 7:27 PM, David Yarrow <dyar...@gmail.com> wrote:


Thomas Goreau

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Jun 4, 2018, 5:13:52 AM6/4/18
to Soil Age, se-bi...@googlegroups.com, biochar, Thomas Vanacore, Joanna Campe
Oceanographers always distinguish between “new” production, based on new inputs of nitrogen and phosphorus from either land, nitrogen fixation, or from deep water upwelling, and are careful to separate that from production based on recycled N and P. It’s odd that terrestrial biologists have never made this distinction, which is why the recycled component is incorrectly regarded as a “new source of nitrogen”.

One would expect large differences in nitrogen and carbon storage dependent on rock substrate between igneous rocks like basalt which are deficient only in nitrogen but have all the other essential elements, and with sedimentary and metamorphic rocks  with high organic carbon and nitrogen content. However the latter can be very deficient in other major biological elements, so the entire spectrum of element availability needs to be taken into account.

Thomas J. F. Goreau, PhD
President, Global Coral Reef Alliance
President, Biorock Technology Inc.
Coordinator, Soil Carbon Alliance
Coordinator, United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development Small Island Developing States Partnership in New Sustainable Technologies
37 Pleasant Street, Cambridge, MA 02139
gor...@globalcoral.org
www.globalcoral.org
Skype: tomgoreau
Tel: (1) 617-864-4226

Books:

Geotherapy: Innovative Methods of Soil Fertility Restoration, Carbon Sequestration, and Reversing CO2 Increase
http://www.crcpress.com/product/isbn/9781466595392

Innovative Methods of Marine Ecosystem Restoration
http://www.crcpress.com/product/isbn/9781466557734

Thomas Goreau

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Jun 4, 2018, 2:15:30 PM6/4/18
to David Yarrow, Soil Age, Thomas Vanacore, joanna campe
Basically all the nitrogen in sedimentary rocks, whether muds, shales, carbonates, sandstones, etc. is in surviving organic matter preserved in the sediments, with the highest amount in fine grained muds and shales. 

Some of this is lost when the sedimentary rock is metamorphosed at high temperature and pressure by burial, but it is still secondary recycled nitrogen that originated in biological nitrogen fixation in the past rather than primary components of the mineral phase. 

Chilean and other nitrates are derived from breakdown and nitrification of biological organic matter in excrement of birds and bats on land and in caves (guano) or of fish excrement on the sea floor (phosphorites).

The primary reference on the biology and chemistry of these materials is:

G. E. Hutchinson, 1950, The Biogeochemistry of Vertebrate Excretion, American Museum of Natural History, 554 p.

This masterpieces is an exhaustive discussion of the mineralization of vertebrate crap, and strongly recommended to those interested in nitrogen and phosphorus recycling.

This is so long known to all nitrogen biogeochemists that it is very misleading to call this “a previously unknown source of nitrogen”. 

Use of the term "new nitrogen" makes a fundamental confusion between new nitrogen inputs and old ones that are being recycled on a range of time scaled, from days by dung beetles, to hundreds of millions of years in some fossil phosphorites and weathering of sedimentary organic matter. 

Thomas J. F. Goreau, PhD
President, Global Coral Reef Alliance
President, Biorock Technology Inc.
Coordinator, Soil Carbon Alliance
Coordinator, United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development Small Island Developing States Partnership in New Sustainable Technologies
37 Pleasant Street, Cambridge, MA 02139

Books:

Geotherapy: Innovative Methods of Soil Fertility Restoration, Carbon Sequestration, and Reversing CO2 Increase

Innovative Methods of Marine Ecosystem Restoration

The Green Disc, New Technologies for a New Future: Innovative Methods for Sustainable Development

No one can change the past, everyone can change the future

When lies trump truth, the dark ages begin

On Jun 4, 2018, at 12:43 PM, David Yarrow <dyar...@gmail.com> wrote:
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Glenn Gall

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Jun 4, 2018, 4:23:30 PM6/4/18
to soil...@googlegroups.com, David Yarrow, Thomas Vanacore, joanna campe
FYI, Hutchison's book is available at Abe Books.

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Glenn Gall
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