[HN Gopher] Fungi and bacteria are binging on burned soil ___________________________________________________________________ Fungi and bacteria are binging on burned soil Author : gmays Score : 108 points Date : 2023-02-08 16:46 UTC (6 hours ago) (HTM) web link (news.ucr.edu) (TXT) w3m dump (news.ucr.edu) | sho_hn wrote: | Isn't "slash and burn" also a common agricultural practice for | millenia? | AdmiralAsshat wrote: | That's certainly my understanding. I seem to remember from an | Intro to Hinduism class that when the "Aryans" arrived in the | Indus Valley, the first thing they did was burn down a bunch of | the forests, because the charred mulch made the soil more | fertile for growing crops. | hosh wrote: | Related: biochar as a soil amendment | | https://biochar-international.org/biochar/ | hinkley wrote: | Biochar turns out to be more effective in bacteria dominant | soils than in fungal, where the fungi provide some of the same | services. | | Tropical forests are bacterial, temperate fungal. I don't think | it's an accident that terra preta (a biochar + ? complex of | soil) is found in Brazil. | | It's also a reason we have to be careful about global warming. | Temperate forests make great carbon sinks, tropical do not. If | we tip more land into tropical we lose a powerful method of | remediation. | beamgirl wrote: | Fun fact to add about carbon sinks, peat bogs can sink 4-17 | times as much CO2 per acre as a forest and acts as an | incredible moisture regulator. One of my more out there | dreams is to start a big man made peat bog at the edge of a | desert. | wiredfool wrote: | This is why we dig up peat bogs and burn them. | legulere wrote: | Where would you get all the water for that? The defining | characteristic of a desert is little precipitation. | beamgirl wrote: | I'd have to find somewhere with water near a desert, | that's why I specified the edge. My understanding of how | some deserts form is that farming techniques or other | forces can cause a region to stop retaining water as | well, and if this happens in a large enough area, it can | lead to less rainfall etc. I remember reading about how | herd animals trampling prairie grass and shitting all | over it causes it to retain significantly more moisture | during dryer times. My thought is that moisture | regulating bogs could possibly at least stop deserts from | expanding | tke248 wrote: | Seems like we should be testing geoengineering in deserts | first before we try it in much harsher environments like | Mars. I think desalinated ocean water via low tech solar | might be a good way to start - https://inhabitat.com/wp- | content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/08/F... | beamgirl wrote: | My understanding is that desalinization should be a | method of last resort, since it produces a lot of brine | that is hard to deal with at scale in a way that isnt bad | for the marine life. Depending on the desert, dew | collectors might work, although I havent looked into how | much water sphagnum moss needs over a year, now much a | dew collector can produce, how much evaporation would | happen, etc. | detritus wrote: | Where can I learn more about what you've said, if you have | sources to hand, please? I'm a big fan of bio-char (lol), so | hearing that it's not-so good in temperate zones is | disappointing to me, but interesting. Thanks :) | chasil wrote: | It is well-known that morel mushrooms do very well in a freshly- | burned forest. | | "...black morels (Morchella elata and related species) are mostly | found in coniferous forests, disturbed ground and recently burned | areas." | | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morchella | | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morchella#Association_with_wil... | ycta2023 wrote: | I live on the west coast of north america - the last few years | following wildfires my mum heads up to the scorched | mountaintops to pick morels and sells them. Big hauls, hundreds | of dollars' worth of rare mushrooms growing in ruined forests. | empyrrhicist wrote: | "Do very well" may not be quite correct. When mycorrhizal hosts | die, the organism puts all its energy into escaping the dead | end - fruiting and dispersing spores. If there are periodic | fires that kill trees, that's a great time to spread to a | neighboring area. If giant fire that takes out vast areas, that | may be less good. | chasil wrote: | But controlled burns and fires that otherwise do not cause | complete incineration of the symbiotic trees/plants would not | result in the death of the fungi. However, with the ground | cleared, the spores would travel further. | | There are also fire-dependent plants that are reproduction- | adapted for these conditions. | | "Some cones, such as those of lodgepole pine and sequoia, are | pyriscent, as well as many chaparral shrubs, meaning they | require heat from fire to open cones to disperse seeds." | | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controlled_burn | empyrrhicist wrote: | Yes, it's an adaptation for a particular ecosystem. | MisterBastahrd wrote: | I guess that makes sense. Compared to seeds, fungi spores are | ephemeral and they make better use of available biomass. Ash also | tends to retain its dampness pretty well. | 1-6 wrote: | Happy to see these studies and more prescribed burns. Nature is | complex and we're still learning. | TEP_Kim_Il_Sung wrote: | Together we can stop this! | zahma wrote: | In response to the subtitle asking whether these species can help | revive burnt areas: I doubt it. It is true that some species are | specially adapted and even need burnt vegetation to thrive (eg. | There's a bird species I believe endogenous to the Yosemite area | whose name I can't recall). However, these species occupy a | particular niche much like I expect fungi or bacteria do. For | them to restore an ecosystem naturally implies balance. There is | nothing balanced about the intensity and frequency of fires, | which are in large part anthropogenic. Maybe there are some | species that are adaptable but I just don't see this as some kind | of panacea. | uoaei wrote: | > There is nothing balanced about the intensity and frequency | of fires | | I urge you to read about indigenous wildland fire management | techniques. Also check out the 'forest fire' cellular automata | model. You speak of niches as being exclusive, but ecosystems | are composed of bubbling foams of overlapping, interacting | niches, which merge, split, re-combine, etc. as the ecosystem | progresses through modes of dynamic equilibrium. Any wildland | will have fires; a mechanism for integrating those fires into | the ecosystem's dynamics is inevitable, because nature operates | as a ruthlessly exploitative force when a new element is | introduced to an ecosystem. Thus, a niche is identified, and | organisms fill it. TFA reports only on the inevitable | conclusion of the natural course of things. | | > just don't see this as some kind of panacea | | Why do you think the author is arguing that it is? | zardo wrote: | > There is nothing balanced about the intensity and frequency | of fires | | A correct statement, the intensity would be lower and the | frequency higher without human intervention. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2023-02-08 23:00 UTC)