Farming the Black Earth Sustainable and Climate-Smart Management of
This book deals with the sustainability of agriculture on the Black Earth by drawing on data from long-term field experiments. It emphasises the opportunities for greater food and water security at local and regional levels.The Black Earth, Chernozem in R
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Farming the Black Earth Sustainable and Climate-Smart Management of Chernozem Soils
Farming the Black Earth
Boris Boincean David Dent •
Farming the Black Earth Sustainable and Climate-Smart Management of Chernozem Soils
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Boris Boincean Selectia Research Institute of Field Crops Alecu Russo State University of Bălți Bălţii, Moldova
David Dent Chestnut Tree Farmhouse, Forncett End Norfolk, UK
ISBN 978-3-030-22532-2 ISBN 978-3-030-22533-9 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22533-9
(eBook)
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Foreword
Canadian ecologist Stan Rowe describes our planet’s Ecosphere as ‘the creative evolved and evolving shell of air-water-Earth organisms that mantles the world.’ I can think of no better example of an Ecospheric product than the Black Earth, or Chernozem. It is not a soil in isolation, rather it is perennial grasses and forbs interacting with relatively unweathered rocks and minerals interacting with billions of soil bacteria, fungi, nematodes, earthworms and ants, interacting with 350–1500 mm of annual precipitation and mean annual temperatures ranging from −4 to 16 °C. Allowed to proceed for thousands of years, these interactions accrue dark humic substances that adhere to fine soil mineral particles which then become glued together into little aggregates. In Chernozem, water and air diffuse through well-developed macropores, and microbes and roots proliferate to considerable depths. This is the Ecosphere building a living system that is highly productive, sponsors its own fertility, stores carbon, releases clean water and is powered by sunlight. Wes Jackson, the co-founder of The Land Institute in Salina,
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