{"id":144663,"date":"2014-07-14T12:49:59","date_gmt":"2014-07-14T11:49:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madrimasd.org\/blogs\/universo\/?p=144663"},"modified":"2014-07-14T12:50:15","modified_gmt":"2014-07-14T11:50:15","slug":"todo-lo-que-no-sabemos-del-biochar-y-ni-tan-siquiera-nos-hemos-planteado-una-conjetura-acerca-de-su-origen-y-funcion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madrimasd.org\/blogs\/universo\/2014\/07\/14\/144663","title":{"rendered":"Todo lo que no sabemos del Biochar y ni tan siquiera nos hemos planteado (Una conjetura acerca de su origen y funci\u00f3n)"},"content":{"rendered":"

En un cap\u00edtulo anterior\u2026.<\/span><\/a>\u00a0(como se dice en las series televisivas) comentamos con sarcasmo varios aspectos de la noticia de prensa sobre la que hoy retornamos\u00a0nuevamente, ya que aporta otros aspectos que s\u00ed atesoran bastante inter\u00e9s. As\u00ed por ejemplo, se comenta que el biochar producido a mayores temperaturas posee mejores propiedades con vistas a retener agua y nutrientes que los que fueron fabricados a temperaturas inferiores<\/strong><\/span>. De aqu\u00ed se infiere un aspecto que suele omitirse de una buena parte de la literatura cient\u00edfica sobre este tema. Como podr\u00e9is documentaros a partir de los post previos (ver relaci\u00f3n al final de este) que hemos escrito acerca de las propiedades de los suelos con horizontes org\u00e1nicos antr\u00f3picos conocidos en Brasil como<\/strong><\/span> Terra Preta do indio<\/a>. Su materia org\u00e1nica pod\u00eda permanecer sin descomponerse a lo largo de varios milenios, aspecto que dista mucho de haber sido demostrado con los productos industriales que actualmente se venden como herederos de aquellos<\/strong><\/span>. Del mismo modo, se se\u00f1ala impl\u00edcitamente que se desconoce c\u00f3mo obtener la enmienda\/corrector\/ estructurador<\/strong> que llegaron a desarrollar con enorme \u00e9xito los pueblos ind\u00edgenas del Amazon\u00eda<\/strong><\/span>. Por otro, lado los investigadores que llevaron a cabo el estudio, mentan que a\u00f1adieron biochar y nutrientes<\/strong><\/span>, no solo el primero. Es decir que el biochar requiere que se enriquezca\u00a0adicionalmente con una fuente de nutrientes que, bien pudiera ser materia org\u00e1nica sin tratar<\/span><\/strong> (es decir fresca), residuos fecales\u00a0o enmiendas minerales<\/strong><\/span>. Debo suponer que los ind\u00edgenas hicieron uso de la primera o segunda, por cuanto las fuentes locales de nutrientes minerales resultan ser muy escasas en la regi\u00f3n. Ahora bien, cabe preguntarse de que tipo de producto y tratamiento hablamos. Por un lado las empresas que comercializan hoy el denominado biochar lo hacen exclusivamente utilizando como materia prima hojas y\/o trozos de madera, en general. Y as\u00ed se puede leer en la literatura y marketing empresarial hablar del biochar en base a sustratos\u00a0del haya, roble, \u00e1lamos, etc. Sin embargo, seguimos desconociendo totalmente los procedimientos ind\u00edgenas<\/strong><\/span>. No resulta descabellado pensar que bien pudieran a\u00f1adir, sustancias, compuestos o materiales espec\u00edficos que favorecieran la producci\u00f3n \u00a0de un biochar concreto o que actuaran como productos catal\u00edticos de las reacciones generadas de \u201calguna forma\u201d<\/strong>. En otras palabras,<\/span> actualmente se vende algo bastante puro, mientras que no es descabellado conjeturar que las culturas abor\u00edgenes combinaran materiales diversos, en cantidades concretas, a modo de coctel<\/strong><\/span>. Quiz\u00e1s por esa raz\u00f3n los ind\u00edgenas consiguieran una enmienda cuyas propiedades la tecnolog\u00eda moderna no ha logrado\u00a0emular<\/strong><\/span>. \u00a0Pero una vez vista la estructura enormemente porosa del biochar ind\u00edgena<\/strong><\/span>, tambi\u00e9n cabe preguntarse (\u2026)<\/span> <\/strong><\/p>\n

\"biochar-artificial-al-microscipio-electronico\"<\/p>\n

Estructura del biochar comercial al microscopio electr\u00f3nico. Para ayudar a mejorar la estructura del suelo deber\u00eda albergar m\u00e1s diversidad de tama\u00f1o de poros (fractal), como en los suelos naturales. Fuente: scratchapixel<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

(….) qu\u00e9 tipo de papel jugaba en el seno las culturas de aquellos pueblos<\/strong><\/span>. Me explico. Como podr\u00e9is observar, al principio del post (y tambi\u00e9n en alguno anterior) me he referido al biochar como<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0enmienda\/corrector\/estructurador<\/strong>. \u00bfPor qu\u00e9?. Sospecho que pueden equivocarse quien piense que<\/strong><\/span> se trata de a\u00f1adir la sustancia al medio ed\u00e1fico sin m\u00e1s. Empero un producto puede aplicarse como abono<\/strong><\/span>, en el sentido que al entrar en contacto con el medio ed\u00e1fico, al disolverse\/ descomponerse\/mineralizarse, desprenda nutrientes, o simplemente que fuera un corrector de la estructura original de los suelos naturales<\/strong> <\/span>de la regi\u00f3n. En este sentido cabe recordar que los Ultisoles y Oxisoles<\/strong><\/span> (Acrisoles y Ferralsoles), dominantes en la Cuenca del Amazonas, atesoran unas pobres propiedades qu\u00edmicas y f\u00edsicas<\/span>. Las primeras<\/span><\/strong> obedecen a la pobreza en nutrientes, mientras la segundas<\/strong> <\/span>son inducidas por atesorar mayoritariamente arcillas que<\/span>,<\/strong> como las de tipo caolin\u00edtico<\/a>, retienen mucho peor los nutrientes<\/strong> <\/span>que otras como lo son las de naturaleza montnorillon\u00edtica<\/a>, en el sentido m\u00e1s amplio del vocablo (es decir \u201cexpandibles\u201d o \u201creactivas\u201d) que los fijan muy bien y en gran cantidad. Empero estas \u00faltimas no suelen presentarse en suelos viejos y evolucionados como los aludidos de la Amazon\u00eda.<\/p>\n

En consecuencia, podr\u00eda conjeturarse que el biochar ind\u00edgena bien pudiera ser un horizonte org\u00e1nico artificial, sobreimpuesto al natural, con vistas a que aquellos suelos retuvieran bien los nutrientes. Y as\u00ed, las enmiendas org\u00e1nicas naturales<\/strong> <\/span>(es decir, sin tratar) se a\u00f1adir\u00edan despu\u00e9s a modo de \u00a0genuinas enmiendas. Por tanto, el biochar podr\u00eda conceptualizarse como un estructurador<\/strong> <\/span>(mejorador de las propiedades f\u00edsicas) de aquellos pobres horizontes org\u00e1nico-minerales, dando cuenta el abono de<\/strong> <\/span>un enriquecimiento de las propiedades qu\u00edmicas. El hecho plausible de a\u00f1adir restos org\u00e1nicos frescos sobre el aquel biochar ancestral podr\u00eda ser la causa de que, al mezclarse, nos impida visionar la estructura de aqu\u00e9l horizonte artificial. \u00a0Hablar\u00edamos pues de verdaderos tecnosuelos<\/span><\/strong>, por mucho que no tengan cabida actualmente en los grupos de suelos de referencia de la WRB. Obviamente, se trata de una mera conjetura<\/span>, aunque<\/span><\/strong> me parece digna de ser sopesada.<\/p>\n

Espero haber a\u00f1adido un granito de fertilidad al tema, aunque no puede descartarse que sea una fantas\u00eda del impresentable administrador de esta bit\u00e1cora. En cualquier caso, reiteramos que los biochar comerciales parecen no tener las excepcionales y casi inauditas propiedades que los cient\u00edficos otorgan al producto ind\u00edgena en la literatura cient\u00edfica<\/strong><\/span>. \u00a0Os vuelvo pues a dejar la nota de prensa que ha dado lugar a estos dos post, tan dispares entre s\u00ed.<\/p>\n

Juan Jos\u00e9 Ib\u00e1\u00f1ez<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Biochar quiets microbes, including some plant pathogens<\/strong><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

by Staff Writers. Houston TX (SPX) Oct 03, 2013<\/p>\n

In the first study of its kind, Rice University scientists have used synthetic biology to study how a popular soil amendment called \u00abbiochar\u00bb can interfere with the chemical signals that some microbes use to communicate<\/strong>. The class of compounds studied includes those used by some plant pathogens to coordinate their attacks<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Biochar is charcoal that is produced<\/strong> – typically from waste wood, manure or leaves – for use as a soil additive<\/strong>. Studies have found biochar can improve both the nutrient- and water-holding properties of soil<\/strong>, but its popularity in recent years also owes to its ability to reduce greenhouse gases by storing carbon in soil<\/strong>, in some cases for many centuries<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The new study<\/strong>, published online this month in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, is the first to examine how biochar affects the chemical signaling that’s routinely used by soil microorganisms that interact with plants<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u00abA potted plant may look tranquil, but there are actually a lot of conversations going on in that pot<\/strong>,\u00bb said study co-author Joff Silberg, associate professor of biochemistry and cell biology and of bioengineering at Rice. \u00abIn fact, there are so many different conversations going on in soil that it was impractical for us to determine exactly how biochar was affecting just one of them<\/strong>.\u00bb<\/p>\n

So Silberg and colleagues used the tools of synthetic biology – and a refined experimental setup that <\/strong>Silberg initially drafted with his son’s spare Lego bricks – to establish a situation where just one microbial conversation was taking place and where biochar’s effects on that conversation could be measured<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The study is the latest from Rice’s interdisciplinary Biochar Research Group, which formed in<\/strong> the wake of Hurricane Ike in 2008 when the city of Houston called for ideas about how to get rid of the estimated 5.6 million cubic yards of fallen trees, broken branches and dead greenery left behind by the storm.<\/p>\n

The Rice Biochar Group won the $10,000 grand prize in the city’s \u00abRecycle Ike\u00bb contest and used the money to jump-start a wide-ranging research program that has since received support from the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, Rice’s Faculty Initiative Fund, Rice’s Shell Center for Sustainability and Rice’s Institute of Bioscience and Bioengineering.<\/p>\n

The cell-signaling study grew out of a previous investigation by<\/strong> one of the group’s founding members, Carrie Masiello, associate professor of Earth science. Masiello and another member of the group, Rice biologist Jennifer Rudgers (now at the University of New Mexico), were investigating the combined effects of adding biochar and nutrients to soils<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In all but one case, the biochar and nutrients seemed to enhance one another<\/strong>. In the lone exception, a soil fungus that was typically beneficial to plants began growing so rapidly that it impeded plant growth<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u00abAll of these organisms, to a much greater extent than we probably understand, are talking to each other all the time<\/strong>,\u00bb Silberg said.<\/p>\n

\u00abMicrobes talk to microbes. Microbes talk to plants<\/strong>. Plants talk to microbes. And they each make decisions about their behavior based on those conversations<\/strong>. When we started talking about these results, my first thought was, ‘You’re probably interfering with a conversation.'\u00bb<\/p>\n

There was no practical way to isolate the conversation that was likely being interfered with in the previous experiment, but Silberg thought of a way to create engineered microbes to test the idea of whether biochar could interfere with such a conversation<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

His lab began by working with Matt Bennett, assistant professor of biochemistry and cell biology at Rice, to make use of two tailored forms of E. coli bacteria created by<\/strong> Rice graduate student Chen Ye. One strain \u00abspoke\u00bb with a type of chemical communication commonly used by soil microbes, and the other \u00ablistened<\/strong>.\u00bb<\/p>\n

Unlike the fungi that use this communication method in soil, the E. coli could be grown in clear agar gels in a petri dish, which meant the researchers could more easily observe them under a microscope<\/strong>. The team next inserted florescence genes into each organism<\/strong>, which caused them to glow different colors – red for speaking and green for listening<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u00abWe needed a way to conduct two experiments in the same dish, one where biochar had a chance to interfere with a conversation and another where it didn’t<\/strong>,\u00bb Silberg said.<\/p>\n

Working with his son’s Legos, Silberg constructed a pair of rectangular platforms that sat parallel in the dish, about one inch apart. Agar was added to fill all parts of the dish except for the areas blocked by the bricks. Once the agar gel had set, the rectangular platforms were removed to create two empty parallel troughs.<\/p>\n

One of these was filled with clear agar, and the other was filled with agar containing biochar. \u00abSpeaker\u00bb organisms were added to the middle of the dish, and \u00ablisteners\u00bb were placed on the opposite side of each trough.<\/p>\n

Graduate student Shelly Hsiao-Ying Cheng refined Silberg’s Lego design and used tools at Rice’s Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen to create a set of sturdy platforms for repeated tests. The group then ran dozens of microscopy tests with Dan Wagner, Rice associate professor of biochemistry and cell biology, to see how different formulations and amounts of biochar affected cell signaling.<\/p>\n

Algunos comentarios adicionales extra\u00eddos de la P\u00e1gina Web de la Universidad de Rice<\/a>.<\/p>\n

(\u2026.) In every case, we observed significantly less green light from the opposite side of the biochar, which meant the E. coli on that side had trouble hearing the sender,\u201d Silberg said. \u201cThat upheld our hypothesis, which was that biochar could interfere with cell signaling, most likely by binding with the fatty-acid molecules that the speakers were using to broadcast their message<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team found that biochar that was created with higher temperatures was as much as 10 times more effective at shutting down conversations<\/strong>. The researchers said this finding was significant because<\/strong> it jibed with the results from a 2012 study by Masiello that found that biochars created with higher-temperature processes were more effective at holding water and nutrients<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u201cBiochar can be made in processes that range from 250 to 1,000 degrees<\/strong> Celsius, and there\u2019s mounting evidence that the temperature can dramatically affect the final properties<\/strong>,\u201d Masiello said. \u201cUltimately, we\u2019d like to create a simple guide that people can use to tailor the properties of their biochar.\u201d<\/p>\n

Silberg added, \u201cSome microbes help plants and others are harmful. That means there\u2019s good communication and bad communication going on in the soil at the same time<\/strong>. We think it\u2019s likely that some biochars will knock out some conversations and not others, so we want to test that idea and, if possible, come up with a way to tailor biochar for the microbial diversity that\u2019s desired.\u201d<\/p>\n

Study co-authors include Ye Chen, Xiaodong Gao, Shirley Liu and Kyriacos Zygourakis, all of Rice.<\/p>\n

Post Previos sobre los or\u00edgenes del biochar y sus propiedades<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Biodiversidad, Culturas Prehisp\u00e1nicas y Suelos (\u00bfMito de los Bosques Primigenios en la Amazon\u00eda?)<\/a><\/p>\n

Cultivos de Tala y Quema en el Amazon\u00eda (Chamiceras) y la Calidad del Suelo<\/a><\/p>\n

Francisco de Orellana y la Cultura Perdida del Amazon\u00eda: Del Origen de las Terras Pretas a los Fertilizantes del Futuro <\/a><\/p>\n

Terras Pretas del Amazonas: Distribuci\u00f3n y Caracter\u00edsticas Generales<\/a><\/p>\n

Terras Pretas: Propiedades y Fertilidad (Biochar o Agrichar)<\/a><\/p>\n

Biocarb\u00f3n, Fertilidad de Suelos y Cambio Clim\u00e1tico<\/a><\/p>\n

Biochar, Cambio Clim\u00e1tico, Secuestro de Carbono, Suelos y Marketing Empresarial<\/a><\/p>\n

Biochar Personalizados Para todo tipo de Suelos y Cultivos<\/a><\/p>\n

Fertilizantes Nitrogenados, \u00d3xido Nitroso, Contaminaci\u00f3n y Cambio Clim\u00e1tico<\/a><\/p>\n

Biochar, Ecolog\u00eda del Suelo, Cambio Clim\u00e1tico y Reducci\u00f3n de las Emisiones de \u00d3xido Nitroso.<\/span><\/p>\n

El Biochar, Inteligencia Militar, Espionaje Masivo entre las fuerzas del\u00a0 bien y del Mal en el Seno del Suelo<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

En un cap\u00edtulo anterior\u2026.\u00a0(como se dice en las series televisivas) comentamos con sarcasmo varios aspectos de la noticia de prensa sobre la que hoy retornamos\u00a0nuevamente, ya que aporta otros aspectos que s\u00ed atesoran bastante inter\u00e9s. As\u00ed por ejemplo, se comenta que el biochar producido a mayores temperaturas posee mejores propiedades con vistas a retener agua y nutrientes que los que fueron fabricados a temperaturas inferiores. De aqu\u00ed se infiere un aspecto que suele omitirse de una buena parte de la literatura cient\u00edfica sobre este tema. Como podr\u00e9is documentaros a partir de los post previos (ver relaci\u00f3n al final de este)\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[596,590,599,613],"tags":[47175,47110,47008,46711,47107,24655],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":4}},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madrimasd.org\/blogs\/universo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144663"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madrimasd.org\/blogs\/universo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madrimasd.org\/blogs\/universo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madrimasd.org\/blogs\/universo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madrimasd.org\/blogs\/universo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144663"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.madrimasd.org\/blogs\/universo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144663\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":145828,"href":"https:\/\/www.madrimasd.org\/blogs\/universo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144663\/revisions\/145828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madrimasd.org\/blogs\/universo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madrimasd.org\/blogs\/universo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madrimasd.org\/blogs\/universo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}