#total soil carbon

[labfitaustralia]

#Automated Dispensing Machines Market #au #Automated weighing systems #Automated precision weighing applications #australia #Soil Testing #water dispensers #soil analysis #soil test #Carbon sulfur analyzer #lab equipment manufacturers #Laboratory sample weight loss #total organic carbon #thermogravimetric analysis #soil ph

[anipgarden]

Un-Actions, or Restriction of Activities

This is my first post in a series I’ll be making on how to increase biodiversity on a budget! I’m not an expert--just an enthusiast--but I hope something you find here helps! 

There’s a good handful of ways you can help increase biodiversity in your yard that don’t require buying things--in fact, these may actually help you save money in the long run! They may seem small and simple, but every bit counts! Whether you can do these in totality, or just limit how often you do these actions, it’ll make a difference.

Not Mowing, or Mowing Less Often

Turf grass lawns are considered a monoculture, meaning they don’t provide much opportunity for insects to find habitat--so few other creatures find them enjoyable either. An expanse of turf grass is, in many ways, a barren wasteland in the eyes of wildlife--too exposed to cross, with few to no opportunities for food or shelter, leaving them exposed to blazing hot sun, freezing cold, or any predators that may be lurking nearby. A place to be avoided. The simple act of letting your grass grow unbothered gives a chance for wildflowers to grow, and for your grass to grow taller--providing more habitat for insects, which then provides more habitat to birds and other creatures that feed on said insects. Wildlife want nothing more than to skirt by unnoticed, so even leaving the grass tall along the edges of a fence or yard can help a little. Even restricting mowing to every other week, or at a higher blade setting, can be a huge help. If HOAs or city ordinances are fussy about lawn length in the front yard, you can likely still keep grass higher in the backyard. Or, you can create a ‘feature’ where grass is allowed to grow long in a specific area. If it looks purposeful, people are more likely to accept it. Not mowing under trees or close to shrubs not only leaves space for wildflowers to grow, but also means you don’t have to deal with mowing over bumpy roots and other difficulties. Cutting different areas at different times can be an option for letting grass grow long in some areas while still having available places for play and entertainment. I’ve seen some people plant flower bulbs when pulling up weeds, so in the future they'll bloom in early spring before mowing is usually necessary. This could be another fun way of adding biodiversity to a lawn without--or before you--begin mowing in spring.

Not worrying about mowing, or doing it less often, saves you in time, money, and energy. You won’t have to buy as much gasoline for your mower, and Saturday afternoons can be free to be enjoyed in other ways aside from being sticky and sweaty and covered in grass stains. In addition, you’ll likely be lowering your own carbon emissions!

If you do have to mow your lawn, I’ve got ways you can use your grass clippings to boost biodiversity later in the post series!

Not using pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, etc.

One of the next-biggest non-actions you can do asides from not mowing is using fewer fewer to no herbicides, fungicides, and pesticides in your yard. This’ll easily allow for more biodiversity. Allowing more insects and a wide array of plants to thrive will feed back into the entire food chain in your area. In addition, these types of chemicals have been tied to algae blooms, death of beneficial insects, harm to birds, fish, and even humans. Soil is supposed to be full of fungi, especially fungal mycelium that essentially acts as a network for plants to communicate, share nutrients, and support each other--fungicide kills that, and typically makes all other lawn problems even worse in a negative feedback loop. It may take awhile to see the benefits of avoiding these chemicals, but once you see it, it really is astounding.

However! I can’t lie and say that there haven’t been points where I needed to use pesticides at some points in my gardening journey. In these cases, try to use products that are organic--like diatomaceous earth, neem oil, etc--and use them accurately, correctly, and sparingly. Follow instructions on how to apply them safely and responsibly--for example, on non-windy days and during times when bees and other pollinators aren’t likely to be out and about. With some pests (read: oleander aphids, in my experience), a simple jetstream of water is enough to force them off the plant where they’ll be too weak to get back. Eventually, you should have a balanced enough ecosystem that no one insect pest causes a major issue with the work you’re doing to boost biodiversity.

If you can bear to, try handling pests manually. Squishing pest bugs in your hand is a pretty foolproof way to get rid of some problems, or spraying them with a mix of soap and water can do the trick on some insects. Alternatively, picking them off your plants and into a bucket of soapy water is also a valid option. You’ve heard of baptism by fire, now get ready for… baptism by soap?

But also! Try reconsidering what you consider a pest! Tomato hornworms are hated by gardeners, for devouring the foliage of beloved tomato, pepper, and potato plants. But killing the tomato and tobacco hornworm means getting rid of sphinx moths, also known as hummingbird or hawk moths! Hawk moths are vital to the survival of many native plants, and are sometimes even the only species that pollinates them. If you can bear to, consider sacrificing a few tomato plants, or growing a few extras, so we can continue having these beautiful moths for years to come. After all, they may not even do significant damage to the plants!

With that in mind, be friendly to your natural pest managers! Lacewings, ladybugs, praying mantises, wasps, birds, bats, and more will help manage pest populations in your environment! Encourage them by planting things they like, providing habitat, and leaving them be to do their work! Avoiding pesticides helps make your garden a livable environment for them, too!

Letting Weeds Grow

Many of the plants we know as 'weeds' are actually secondary succession species and native wildflowers. Milkweed was regarded as a noxious, annoying weed for a long time, and now people are actively trying to plant them after learning about the important role they play in our environments! Weeds are adapted to take over areas that have been cleared out of other plants after a disaster, so they're doing much of the initial work in making a habitat for other creatures. In fact, many of them will simply die back as the environment repairs itself.

An important thing to note is to please make sure that your ‘weeds’ are not invasive species. Work on learning how to identify native and invasive species in your area, and pull out what’s harmful to leave room for what’s good!

Don’t Rake (Or At Least Don’t Bag Your Leaves)

Many insects overwinter in piles of leaves that we often rake away and bag up in the fall and winter. By doing this, we are actively throwing away the biodiversity of our neighborhoods! If you can, leave the leaves where they fall! 

If you do need to rake, put the leaves in places wildlife can still access it instead of bagging it up. Move your leaves into garden beds to serve as mulch, or along the edge of fences to rest while keeping egg cases and hiding bugs intact and free to release come spring.

Leave Snags Where They Are

Snags are dead trees/dead branches on living trees. They provide an important wildlife habitat--many birds nest in them, or use them to seek cover from rain, and many insects will also live in snags (making them an additional food source for birds and other creatures). Tree cavities are used as nests by hundreds of bird species in the US, and many mammals use them as well, such as bats, squirrels, raccoons, and sometimes even bears. Some trees form cavities while they’re still alive, but in conifers they’re more likely to form after death. Crevices between the trunk of a dead tree and its peeling bark provide sun protection for bats and amphibians, and leafless branches make great perching areas for birds of prey to hunt from above. The decaying wood is home to insects and fungi, who then feed birds, mammals, amphibians, and reptiles.  Do check on the snags regularly to ensure they don’t serve a threat to any nearby structures, but whenever possible, leave them be! 

Keep Your Cat Inside

If you have an outdoor cat, consider making the adjustments to have it be an indoor cat. If you have an indoor cat, keep it as an indoor cat. Free ranging cats impact biodiversity through predation, fear effects, competition for resources, disease, and more. Keeping little Mittens inside does a lot more to help than it may seem from the outside.

That’s the end of this post! My next one’s gonna be on things you can add to your space that aren’t directly related to growing plants. For now, I hope this advice helps! Feel free to reply with any questions, success stories, or anything you think I may have forgotten to add in! 

#biodiversity #solarpunk #gardening #outdoor gardening #lawn culture #anti lawn culture #environmental stewardship #(i think that counts) #ani rambles #out of queue #the biodiversity saga #I know I said this in the masterpost already but another reminder some people aren't in a position to do all or some or even any of this #i have so far been unsuccessful in convincing my parents to not mow or rake because we live in an HOA neighborhood #but do what you can/are able to! it'll help!

[headspace-hotel]

Proposed logging project in the Daniel Boone National Forest (South-Central Kentucky, USA)

I found out about this recently and Ive seen barely any discussion or attention about it in real life or on the internet, so hopefully I can attract more attention

The USA Forest Service is planning to log 10,000 acres of the Daniel Boone National Forest near Jellico Mountain, near the Kentucky-Tennessee border. The plan includes around 1,000 acres of clear cutting.

We need mature forests to remove and store carbon from the atmosphere. This is disastrous from a climate change perspective.

The excuse being given (apart from the obvious economic incentive of logging) is that the tract is mostly "mature forest" and that the forest needs to have a "diversity of age classes" for wildlife. This is total bullshit, since less than 1% of old growth forest in the Eastern USA remains, and an 80-year-old forest is still incredibly young. This type of reasoning is greenwashing.

To make matters worse, the planned logging is on mountain tops, which will cause huge amounts of erosion and possible floods and landslides that endanger the people who live in the valleys below.

Kentucky experienced a deadly flash flood in the eastern mountains that killed 40 people last year. Forests help stop flash flooding by absorbing rainfall in a dense layer of roots and soil, draining it slowly into waterways; without them, mud and rainwater goes rushing straight into narrow mountain gullies rapidly, causing dangerous floods.

Mud and sediment rushing into streams also kills fish and aquatic life that need clear, clean stream water.

Kentucky has one of the most biodiverse freshwater ecosystems in the entire world, with only a couple states next to it having more freshwater species. Kentucky's forest streams have fresh water fish, crustaceans and other species found nowhere else on Earth.

The Southeastern USA has the most diverse freshwater life of any place on Earth, the most salamander diversity of any place on Earth, and the Appalachian Mountains are a global hotspot of biodiversity, considered one of the world's most biodiverse temperate deciduous forest habitats.

It is crucial that we begin building the old-growth forests of the future NOW!

Logging these forest tracts will facilitate invasive species to take over. Mature forests form buffer zones against invasive species. The forest will never grow back the way it was; it will be infected with Kudzu, Autumn Olive, Honeysuckle and other invasives that take advantage of the destruction and prevent the normal process of forest succession from happening as it should.

If you live anywhere near this area, talk to everyone around you about this, send them the links above and encourage them to do the same themselves.

Talk to your friends, your neighbors, people at your church, everyone you are in contact with or speak to in your day to day life. Tell them about the risks of flash flooding and landslides and the importance of preserving mature forest land. Any environmental clubs and organizations you know of, tell them as well.

Most people haven't even heard this is happening, and that's how they get away with it.

Public outrage protects priceless habitats all the time, so TELL EVERYONE YOU KNOW. Tell people you don't know, even. Call and email organizations and people that might be interested, until you run into someone who has an idea of what to do. That's how change happens!

#boost #kentucky #conservation #logging #protect our forests #climate change mitigation #usa

[1percentcharge]

fun fact! one of the best if not the best method of re-stabilizing an environment is by regularly moving livestock through the area so that they cover the soil just by like, eating and pooping and moving. this makes the soil hold water and carbon instead of it immediately evaporating, which promotes new growth! I love holistic management and I really love cows and I feel like we could absolutely have a world where there’s still meat but it isn’t raised in the absolute minimum required standard of living

Oh interesting!! I totally agree w your take at the end

#asks

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from The Revelator:

Last summer I took advantage of my break from teaching by enjoying long, daily walks around my neighborhood. I indulged my mind and body in the blueness, stillness, and leafiness that is North Carolina in June and July. It’s truly astounding how many leaves a willow oak can cram into one tiny piece of sky.

On my walks, the yard of one house stuck out. It was unlike any yard I’ve seen around my city or in any of the other cities in the United States, Canada, and Australia where I’ve lived. It is a forest yard. Nearly a dozen large trees are interspersed amid a dense stand of saplings and shrubs. That summer, leaf litter covered the ground. The top of the house was only visible if I craned my neck to see down the paved driveway, itself narrowing and crumbling as roots, lichens, and fungi worked their inexorable magic.

Depending on your perspective, the house with the forest yard could be seen either as an eyesore — and the scariest place to trick-or-treat — or, as in my case, the most splendid place imaginable.

At this point, I should probably mention that I’m an urban ecologist and that the forest yard makes my heart flutter at the possibility and hope of nature in cities.

I looked at aerial images for the area, and they revealed that the trees around that home, which haven’t been actively “managed,” are about 50 years old. Over that time the forest yard has accumulated a bewildering array of species and ecological interactions. Its tulip poplars, walnuts, cedars, redbuds, pines, and willow oaks have soaked up the atmosphere’s carbon dioxide and turned it into much-needed habitat for wildlife: butterflies, bees, and other insects; lizards, snakes, and turtles; frogs and toads; birds; and mammals. It’s home to a multitude of soil invertebrates and fungi that keep the business side of an ecosystem — aka decomposition — going. All the species that share this shady third-of-an-acre lot are intertwined in a complex tangle of relationships that keeps them fed and feeding on one another, interdependent to varying degrees for their life and livelihood.

And all of this exists amidst a matrix of roads, single-family and multiplex housing, commercial plazas, light industry, and high rises that make up a medium-sized city in the Southeast. The forest yard is a little island of nature in a nearly lifeless sea of concrete, asphalt and lawn.

But, to my inexhaustible surprise, that sea of concrete, asphalt, and lawn is not as empty as we tend to assume. Very far from it. Places of dense human habitation are also where many species reside, including some that are threatened. A recent analysis of the birds and plants that occur in 147 cities across the globe revealed that the sampled cities were home to 2,041 bird species — about one-fifth of Earth’s total avian diversity — and 14,240 plant species. These include 36 bird and 65 plant species threatened with global extinction.

To get a better idea of just how much of the urban biodiversity iceberg lies below the surface of our awareness, consider this: Last year participants in the City Nature Challenge made nearly 1.9 million observations in 480 cities, with the residents of the La Paz metropolitan area in Bolivia recording the high score of 5,320 species.

Add to this the estimate that we share our homes and yards with an average of 9,000 species of fungi and bacteria and you’ll begin to suspect, as I do, that cities are in fact incredibly biodiverse. And it’s not just the all-too-rare forest yard: Scientific evidence shows that the more people you find in a place, the more types of birds, mammals, and plants you’ll find there too.

So why don’t we see it that way? Why do we perceive our urban centers as unworthy and undeserving of our conservation efforts and attention?

#urban ecology #urban environments #urban wildlife

[fatehbaz]

Good news: 10 quintillion (10 billion billion) individual arthropods in Earth’s soil.

:)

Including nearly 100 million metric tons of termites alone. And that’s only the number of “bugs” living underground. How many more live on the surface, in grasslands, forest canopies?

---

Arthropods crawl and buzz around us in the wild and on farmlands, on the street and at home, under our floors and in our plumbing systems, even in our food and on our bodies. [...] Yet, despite their crucial importance to the environment and humanity, and despite data suggesting a worrying decline in their numbers in areas impacted by human activity, scientists did not have holistic, global answers to basic questions about arthropods, such as how many of them are out there and how much they weigh collectively.

Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science have now taken a significant step toward answering these questions. In a study published today in Science Advances, a team headed by Prof. Ron Milo has calculated that the total biomass, or collective weight, of terrestrial arthropods is about 1 billion tons, which is roughly the same as that of all people (about 400 million tons) and all farm animals (about 600 million tons) combined. [...]

The researchers gathered data from thousands of observations conducted over the years at some 500 survey sites around the world. [...] The scientists examined data on arthropod biomass both below and above the ground, for example on plants. The study shows that the bulk of terrestrial arthropods' biomass belongs to creatures that live underground -- including springtails and mites, tiny animals that are critically important for the rich ecology of the subterranean world. Underground arthropods are responsible for processes that fertilize the soil and affect the global carbon cycle. They prey on other organisms, maintaining an ecological balance.

The researchers calculated that the number of individual arthropods underground is about 10 quintillion, or 10 billion billions.

Social insects that live in colonies account for half of the mass of underground arthropods: Termites and ants constitute 40 and 10 percent of that category, respectively. As for aboveground arthropods, most of their biomass is probably found in tropical forests, and it includes many familiar arthropods such as butterflies, ants, beetles, grasshoppers and spiders.

---

All content above, headline, images, graphics, captions, and text published by: Weizmnn Institute of Science. “The first global estimate of the combined weight of all land insects and related arthropods.” Phys dot org. 6 February 2023. [Bold emphasis and italicized first lines in this post added by me.]

The article itself:

[mapsontheweb]

Human Activity in China and India Dominates the Greening of Earth, NASA Study Shows and presented with map.

Over the last two decades, the Earth has seen an increase in foliage around the planet, measured in average leaf area per year on plants and trees. Data from NASA satellites shows that China and India are leading the increase in greening on land. The effect stems mainly from ambitious tree planting programs in China and intensive agriculture in both countries.

The world is literally a greener place than it was 20 years ago, and data from NASA satellites has revealed a counterintuitive source for much of this new foliage: China and India. A new study shows that the two emerging countries with the world’s biggest populations are leading the increase in greening on land. The effect stems mainly from ambitious tree planting programs in China and intensive agriculture in both countries.

The greening phenomenon was first detected using satellite data in the mid-1990s by Ranga Myneni of Boston University and colleagues, but they did not know whether human activity was one of its chief, direct causes. This new insight was made possible by a nearly 20-year-long data record from a NASA instrument orbiting the Earth on two satellites. It’s called the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, or MODIS, and its high-resolution data provides very accurate information, helping researchers work out details of what’s happening with Earth’s vegetation, down to the level of 500 meters, or about 1,600 feet, on the ground.

Taken all together, the greening of the planet over the last two decades represents an increase in leaf area on plants and trees equivalent to the area covered by all the Amazon rainforests. There are now more than two million square miles of extra green leaf area per year, compared to the early 2000s – a 5% increase.

“China and India account for one-third of the greening, but contain only 9% of the planet’s land area covered in vegetation – a surprising finding, considering the general notion of land degradation in populous countries from overexploitation,” said Chi Chen of the Department of Earth and Environment at Boston University, in Massachusetts, and lead author of the study.

An advantage of the MODIS satellite sensor is the intensive coverage it provides, both in space and time: MODIS has captured as many as four shots of every place on Earth, every day for the last 20 years.

“This long-term data lets us dig deeper,” said Rama Nemani, a research scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center, in California’s Silicon Valley, and a co-author of the new work. “When the greening of the Earth was first observed, we thought it was due to a warmer, wetter climate and fertilization from the added carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, leading to more leaf growth in northern forests, for instance. Now, with the MODIS data that lets us understand the phenomenon at really small scales, we see that humans are also contributing.”

China’s outsized contribution to the global greening trend comes in large part (42%) from programs to conserve and expand forests. These were developed in an effort to reduce the effects of soil erosion, air pollution and climate change. Another 32% there – and 82% of the greening seen in India – comes from intensive cultivation of food crops.

Land area used to grow crops is comparable in China and India – more than 770,000 square miles – and has not changed much since the early 2000s. Yet these regions have greatly increased both their annual total green leaf area and their food production. This was achieved through multiple cropping practices, where a field is replanted to produce another harvest several times a year. Production of grains, vegetables, fruits and more have increased by about 35-40% since 2000 to feed their large populations.

How the greening trend may change in the future depends on numerous factors, both on a global scale and the local human level. For example, increased food production in India is facilitated by groundwater irrigation. If the groundwater is depleted, this trend may change.

“But, now that we know direct human influence is a key driver of the greening Earth, we need to factor this into our climate models,” Nemani said. “This will help scientists make better predictions about the behavior of different Earth systems, which will help countries make better decisions about how and when to take action.”

The researchers point out that the gain in greenness seen around the world and dominated by India and China does not offset the damage from loss of natural vegetation in tropical regions, such as Brazil and Indonesia. The consequences for sustainability and biodiversity in those ecosystems remain.

Overall, Nemani sees a positive message in the new findings. “Once people realize there’s a problem, they tend to fix it,” he said. “In the 70s and 80s in India and China, the situation around vegetation loss wasn’t good; in the 90s, people realized it; and today things have improved. Humans are incredibly resilient. That’s what we see in the satellite data.”

This research was published online, Feb. 11, 2019, in the journal Nature Sustainability.

#maps #asia #vegetation

[script-a-world]

Submitted via Google Form:

I want to build a world where the air is very toxic and all the population lives underground in shelters and if they're on the surface, they require lots of gear. I'm running into the issue of how toxic, how long this has been going on, how people even adapt (both technogically and physically). Especially the adaption part. Because this cannot be people who naturally evolved in such an environment when they lacked tech to survive it, and well, even with tech, there are still going to be random biological adaptions after quite a long time. I've been toying with the idea of between 3-5 thousand years but... Also if it HAD been that long, what might prevent them from eliminating the toxic air or something if it had so long.

Tex: Earth’s current air is already heavily toxic from manufacturing processes and other sources, to debilitating effects on one’s health (Wikipedia). Human DNA, at minimum, has already been altered by this (Google Scholar), and politics is a changing variable historically. One of the main issues in building a world with heavy pollution is that pollution doesn’t stay in one place, or one biome. Air pollution becomes water pollution, becomes soil pollution, and can become folded into geological strata over time, leaching pollutants to be literally unearthed in the future. Simply living underground is not necessarily going to stop this, particularly over the time span of thousands of years - materials break down, and need repair, which requires a manufacturing industry to create materials for such repairs. Survival, in this instance, becomes a sliding scale of definition  - the parameters for healthy will look different, and genetic-induced illnesses will culminate from environmentally-induced illnesses, so even if the environment is completely cleaned, the remnants of its effects will last for many generations.

Utuabzu: Tex is right, pollution has a rather nasty habit of traveling. But if you want the surface uninhabitable, you do have quite a few options. Nuclear winter, massive nasty pollution, supervolcanic eruption, planet kicked out of its orbit and surviving only on internal heat as a rogue planet, another planet already hostile to human life. Others I'm not really able to think of right now. But 3-5 thousand years is definitely not enough time for humans to meaningfully evolve any serious adaptations, especially not with the level of technology that would be required to survive at all. The best you'd manage is maybe people getting a bit paler and a bit smaller from living in light-poor and cramped conditions, and some dietary adaptations. Even that's debatable given that a culture technologically advanced enough to build these shelters is also going to be advanced enough to supplement vitamin d and ensure proper nutrition.

Rogue Planet is, to me, probably the most interesting option and the one that will be totally unfixable. The others would resolve themselves over time - the high atmospheric debris from a nuclear war or supervolcano would fall back to Earth (or whatever planet this is) within a few years, and both radioactive materials and most toxins do break down over time. You can't just wait out the cold of interstellar space. The planet's surface would cool continuously, and after a few decades would become so cold that the atmosphere precipitates out and forms a layer of liquid nitrogen, oxygen and carbon dioxide. Then, it gets even colder and this freezes into a shell of N2-O2-CO2 ice. But, internal heat, from the planet's molten core and supplemented by tidal heating from any large satellites, could allow for subterranean habitats to be viable for millions of years. But you could never go to the surface without a full spacesuit.

#google submitted #planets #climate

[gcldfanged]

@setirophx

Getting from Midgar to Junon had been a stressful endeavor, requiring assets such as falsified documentation and passports- New identities they had to memorize and manage to seamlessly obfuscate. Jae’s cover story had been easy enough, a simple name switch and a fake occupation. Immigrants from Wutai and Haneul typically had dual citizenship, so it wasn’t a massive stretch. Sephiroth and the child, on the other hand, had been more difficult. It wasn’t just a matter of cutting and dying hair, they had uniquely colored eyes to boot- Not to mention the former General couldn’t exactly pass himself off as any other eight to five salaryman.

The worst of it was behind them, they’d managed to get through to Yoon’s nation of origin. Shinra still had its industrial claws sucking the land dry of naturally rich deposits of mako, but they would not be risking a life in the capital city. The Turk took them further in the north along the various streams and rivers branching from the sprawling mountain range. Flat grassy planes and fertile hills began to give way to steppes and rocks. But they remained along the borders at the feet of the jutting dragon’s spine of cliffs along the peninsula, where the forest was dense. Game and flora would be more abundant there.

It took some time even by truck and Al was clearly growing rather disenchanted with how windy it was in comparison to the sunny shores of Junon or mild weather of Midgar. 

“I think this might be it,” Jae finally spoke, stepping out of the pick up. Ancient slices of tree trunks made a meandering pathway to a large house, clearly abandoned and in a questionable state. He was surprised that it was still standing, to be honest.

Al glanced around, looking less than impressed as he clung to Sephiroth’s leg.

“When are we going to go back?” the child asked, fidgeting in an anxious and unsure manner.

“This is going to be our home, Al. I grew up in this house when I was about your age,” he answered, feeling a strange mixture of nostalgic familiarity yet also awareness of the passage of time. It was still on the cusp between the end of summer and the start of fall, so the foliage was alive and vibrant green, trumpet vines and creeping ivy overtaking everything.

“Good thing winter hasn’t kicked in yet, or it’d all be snow.”

The nearest trading outpost wasn’t too far away, a small village a couple miles south. They could rely on dry goods and canned food for now, but when they had to contend with day long blizzards and low visibility, hunting would be their only source of steady food in addition to preserving grown vegetables during the fairer times of the year.

“Just keep your shoes on, I have no idea what kind of nasty bugs have probably been shacking up here. We get everything- Huntsman spiders, house centipedes, geckos- At least the geckos are cute.”

The hanok is mostly wood, stone, and earth, with sliding screen doors lined with additional panes of glass. Most of them were broken or cracked from wear and weather. The floors were heated via water boiler, but there was also a gudeul system for cooking and heating via firewood. There was a bathing area inside the house that required heat as well, but the bathroom was in a shed a couple steps away. A large gas generator was housed in a shed to run appliances and electricity, though they usually saved energy and relied on the gudeul in the wintertime.

“I’ll have find someone in the village to check the ondol system, since carbon monoxide poisoning is an issue if you don’t know what you’re doing… The generator seems okay, just dry. Water comes from wells and the mountain streams. Everything is totally overgrown, I’ll have to start over from the soil up if we want to have a garden.”

It wasn’t necessarily bad, but it wasn’t great, either.

“We could make this work, but I’ll be honest- It’s going to be hard. We’re going to have to do ton of repairs while the weather’s still nice and winter prep is going to be… uh. Maybe we’ll just deal with that after we get the house in working order. What do you think…? No good?” he asks, looking over the place once more.

#tredispade #setirophx #◈ rp threads #better learn to be a handyman Sephiroth #verse tag pending!

[goldkirk]

Greetings!

1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 15, 25, 29, 52, 60, 63, 76, 95, 97 and 99?

P.S.: I read your tags, so thanks for the compliment! :-D

oh my god this is so many, you're a riot hahaha! thank you for sending this in!

Most favorite activity?

This is so hard. I love so many things. I guess my best effort to sum a lot of things up would be "hoarding and organizing information in my notebooks), a beloved pastime from about age six to now lol.

2. Least favorite one?

Either brushing my teeth or touching wet dirty sink dishes while needing to hand wash them or load a dishwasher.

3. One activity you really hate?

I've been trying to think of one but I'm drawing a blank. I guess cleaning dog poop out of my shoes after someone has left dog poop on the sidewalk or another walkway.

6. Do you have any idols?

Nah I don't go in for that these days. I definitely have some people I admire or look up to. Not to any level I'd say idols though.

8. Favorite music genre?

Dance! I love all types of genres but I listen most often to dance music.

11. Which kind of animal are you most afraid of?

Hmm. AFRAID of...jellyfish.

14. Do you think there’s a higher species than us humans?

Nah, at least not on our planet. But I don't think we're particularly high among all species, I think we're just particularly unique.

15. Do you believe in ghosts?

As a weird subjective phenomenon some of us experience in our lives? For sure. As "ghosts are the unfinished-business spirits of human dead people", no.

25. Can you dance? Is there any dance you want to learn someday?

Not well anymore, but I'm working on it. I was in love with ballet and wanted to do it forever. I'd like to get back into ballet classes, for adults this time. It's still the way my body most wants to dance. I took a ballroom dancing course for a hot minute. We were allowed to do swing dances when I was homeschooled, so I got pretty good at swing dance and some swing dance tricks.

29. Good memory from your childhood you keep remembering?

The first time I saw a snake in real life and it was a woman in public wearing a snake while walking down the street and she didn't get mad I was interested, she totally treated me like a Small Human Being and answered my questions and LET ME HOLD AND PLAY WITH IT MYSELF. I was like 7 and this was a core memory for me, much to the horror of my poor family members who were with me at the time when I dead-stopped us all in a state we didn't live in in a city we didn't know to talk to a strange woman and bond with her over a huge larger-than-adult-size-feather-boa-scarves snake lmao.

52. Do you think there are some breathing beings on earth contained behind ceilings or walking amongst us somehow with special abilities or powers? (as in most sci-fi and fantasy books, comics, movies)

Man this would be cool but unfortunately no lol

60. If you would have the money to donate what would you donate for?

Oh god I literally have a list about this! I'd donate all over the place, but the first few donations would definitely be to a few grassroots charities I care about and the all the local food pantries and education nonprofits that I can.

63. On your opinion, what should people do about climate change?

Force industry regulations, despite all the kicking and screaming the firms and their political-system lobby groups will throw at all of us about it.

Create a fast-moving national campaign of interconnected state and local ecosystem experts that can partner with local landowners all over their area and any municipalities they can convince to help to rewild as much land as possible with the actually-native plants. MOST PRIMARILY IN THE BREAD BASKET. The soil has GOT to be replenished, and the native grasses store at minimum roughly two times as much carbon underground than any of the cash crops or hay or weed grasses do.

Seriously invest right now, immediately, right away, in any adaptations your area will need to make in order to cope better with the changing and intensifying storms, floods, water level rises, droughts, wildfires, deep freezes, heat waves, etc., anything and everything that your area will for certain have eventually impact it.

End unethical overseas labor systems and the cobalt mining/electronics burning/etc. markets that exist because of the inequity and greed at every level and continual corruption not being overthrown.

Drastically reduce all western meat culture and industrial farming to the normal, sustainable levels of meat eating human families averaged until the very recent past.

Actually stop the driving forces behind systemic mistrust, conspiracy rabbit holes, and succeptibility to misinformation.

And do anything possible to slow tropical deforestation and invest in antibiotic research as fast and effectively as possible. We're already far behind the enemy because it hasn't been profitable to research antibiotics in the eyes of the pharmaceutical companies. With the climate and ecosystem shifts, we're going to have a wild ride with both insect bugs and bacteria bugs, I'm sure.

76. What’s the most romantic thing you ever have done for someone?

Oh man, I can't answer this one, I'm sorry. It's not that I wouldn't like to, I just don't know if I've ever tried to do something truly romantic, because I'm still not sure I understand what romantic most accurately means, so I'll have to get back to you on this one.

95. What’s something you really want to do some day with your/a partner?

I never thought about this until you asked it just now. I guess...maybe...............go overseas and explore some part of another country? My brain keeps giving me blanks, I don't know if it knows how to think about this yet. I'll keep working on it. But it does sound fun to go with a partner on a sort of few-places trip of random interest events or something.

97. Worst catchy song you ever heard?

"Blurred Lines".

99. Does it matter to you there is no 100th question in here?

Hahahaha! It does kind of bug me, not gonna lie, but I chose to embrace it as a rounder, artistic, more organic experience of the concept of an "ask game 100 questions list", like an art exhibit

Thank you for the questions!! Hope you're doing well! <3

#katie answers asks #younganonymus #ask games

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

Shedding Light on a Very Dark River

If the appearance of the muddy Amazon River evokes a coffee cut with cream, the Ruki River, coursing gently through the Congo Basin, is like a dark tea. On its slow path through mostly untouched lowland rainforest in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the water leaches organic material from vegetation, prompting some researchers to think it is one of the darkest blackwater rivers on Earth. The dissolved material in this distinctive water, scientists are finding, offers clues into the carbon cycle of tropical forests.

The Ruki drains an area about the size of Senegal. Most of this watershed is covered in broadleaf and lowland swamp forests. It also contains peat bogs and only a small amount of deforested land. “The Ruki is a good candidate for being one of the most pristine and homogeneous large tropical watersheds on Earth,” the authors said in a recent study about the river. The OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 8 captured this image of the Ruki River at its confluence with the Congo River, approximately 650 kilometers (400 miles) upstream (north) of DRC’s capital city Kinshasa.

For the first time, researchers have measured the chemical composition and flow of the Ruki’s dark waters. For one year, they collected water samples from a field station just upstream from the confluence and analyzed them for components such as dissolved organic carbon. Rivers are conduits of carbon to the ocean and atmosphere, especially in the tropics, so scientists are interested in knowing how much carbon they are transporting and from where.

The study reported that, as the water color suggests, the Ruki is rich in dissolved organic carbon compounds. It contains four times as much organic carbon as the Congo River and 1.5 times as much as the Rio Negro, the world’s largest blackwater river and a major tributary of the Amazon. They calculated the Ruki drains only 5 percent of the Congo Basin but contributes 20 percent of the Congo River’s total organic carbon. The Ruki watershed is very flat, such that water drains slowly and allows dead jungle vegetation plenty of time to “steep” in it, the authors said. Because of this heavy carbon load, they added, “tropical forests like those around the Ruki might not accumulate quite as much carbon as we once thought.”

The researchers also measured radiocarbon isotopes of the dissolved carbon to determine its source. The Ruki runs through areas with peat soils full of partially decomposed plant matter that could represent another source of carbon if eroded or leached into the river. Their results showed that very little carbon comes from the much older peat and that most comes from younger forest vegetation and soils. Although the peat appears stable now, they said, future drought or human disturbance in the watershed could release carbon that is now mostly locked up.

NASA Earth Observatory image by Michala Garrison, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Story by Lindsey Doermann.

#science #space #news #nasa #earth observatory

[labfitaustralia]

#Carbon sulfur analyzer #total organic carbon #Carbon Sulphur Analyzer #carbon sulphur Analyser #carbon sulfur analyzer price #lab supplier #Laboratory Equipment #Lab equipment #Lab Supplies #soil lab

[mercurialbadger]

@b2supertiddydroid

I was just going to mute this post and continue on, but your response was rather earnest contrasted to....

.... Yeah.

So, you see, I am a researcher, rather active one, working closely with prominent, diligent and otherwise excellent researchers in various fields, including ecology.

I don't do it directly, but there's always cross-pollination of fields and nobody knows where a productive collaboration might emerge.

So, I am in a position to judge closely, and if you read our "About" you will get that I am a qualified judge.

I am also fucking pissed.

First, people that do not work with biological engineering - be it synbio or ecosystem engineering - have no sense of scale how obligatory entangled biosystems are.

The stability of a given geobiocenosis depends on a myriad of factors, and no matter how much you disturb it, it won't change its primary productivity or total carbon content because even if you destroy 100 factors there'll be 999999900 factors keeping it in the equilibrium and the self reproducing nature of biological systems will le Chatelier these 100 factors right in your face.

It means that if you see mass carbon, diversity, productivity loss, you are not looking at the old biogeocenosis, the point of equilibrium changed and the succession is On.

Second, degrowth psyop (I mean, it is, unashamedly, people who write in favor do not hide their BP/Shell/Mercator affiliations) uses false metaphors, which create the illusion of choice and control for people. To use one of these, you can turn an elephant into a snail, but that would require shooting an elephant, processing it into the soil, and then growing lettuce to feed a hatchling of the snail egg, and this process is omitted when people oppose making an elephant leaner.

To make a less metaphorical statement of the same point:

- capitalism is efficient through concentration, and if you attack concentration itself, consumption which sits in the denominator will skyrocket, killing everyone to death;

- the existing material base is what we have, it is what we are, ape is incidental, as Iris wrote, so we cannot remove it without backing up, and backing up will mean 30-70 years of double the current growth;

And, last but not least, degrowth outright lies in the level of saturation of human life with commodities, many people don't have even a hundred books at home, nutrition values of food decrease rapidly, health becomes outpriced, the world is already dead!

This is my point which all of the extant data sources unambiguously support, and I am good at finding adversarial evidence to my views.

I am sorry, but for humanity to exist, old nature made by humans 12000 years ago has to burn, and this blog is mostly my pain of the plan 12 years in the making to save at least someone

[goatboyalex]

Unlock the Secrets of Gardening: From Beginner to Pro

""

Gardening has actually always been a popular and also fulfilling hobby for people of all ages. Whether you have a small balcony or a spacious yard, growing a yard can bring immense joy as well as complete satisfaction. However where do you begin if you're a total amateur? Fear not, as this blog site message will certainly assist you with the basics of gardening and assist you come to be a pro in no time.From picking

the right plants for your environment and also soil problems to preparing the soil and growing strategies, we'll cover all the essentials. You'll discover the value of sunshine, watering, and also feeding, as well as exactly how to manage pests and also diseases successfully. Furthermore, we'll explore the art of pruning, appropriate plant treatment, and harvesting strategies. By the end of this short article, you'll feel confident in your capability to create a growing yard that will certainly be the envy of your neighborhood.Paragraph 2: Yet gardening is greater than just a hobby; it can also have many benefits for both your physical as well as psychological well-being. Did you know that spending quality time in nature and working with plants can lower stress and anxiety degrees as well as improve your mood? Gardening offers a sense of success and function as you see your initiatives transform into stunning flowers or plentiful harvests. It additionally uses an excellent means to remain energetic as well as healthy, as having a tendency to your yard entails activities like digging, weeding, as well as lifting.Moreover, horticulture permits you to link with the atmosphere and add to

sustainability. By growing your own fruits, vegetables, and also herbs, you can minimize your carbon impact and have a straight effect on your food usage. In addition, yards offer habitats for helpful bugs and birds, fostering biodiversity in urban locations. So, not just can you enjoy the fruits of your labor, however you'll likewise be doing your part in developing a greener as well as much healthier planet.In verdict, gardening is a terrific pastime with countless benefits for both individuals as well as the setting

. Whether you're starting from scrape or wanting to enhance your existing horticulture abilities, this article will outfit you with the expertise and also self-confidence to do well. So, get your gardening tools and also prepare yourself to unlock the secrets of horticulture!

Read more here https://ucangrowmushrooms.com

#growing mushrooms #mushroom species

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Legal mining sites in Brazil store 2.55 gigatonnes of CO2 in vegetation and soil, study estimates

Researchers at the University of São Paulo highlight the importance of monitoring these areas and advocate the use of technosols based on tailings and other waste to offset part of their emissions.

As global temperatures continue to reach all-time highs and discussions intensify about ways to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change, researchers at the University of São Paulo’s Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture (ESALQ-USP) in Brazil have reported the results of a scientific study showing that if all the country’s active legal mining sites continue to operate in the coming decades, emissions will total an estimated 2.55 gigatonnes of equivalent carbon dioxide (Gt CO2eq) due to loss of vegetation (0.87 Gt CO2eq) and soil (1.68 Gt CO2eq). This total corresponds to about 5% of the world’s annual greenhouse gas emissions from human activities.

An article on the study is published in the scientific journal Communications Earth & Environment.

According to the researchers, Brazil has 5.4 million hectares of active legal mines. This is a little less than the area of Croatia (5.6m ha). Legal mines are located all over Brazil, but most are in subtropical and tropical areas and have the largest soil organic carbon stocks, estimated at 1.05 Gt CO2eq.

They advocate a nature-based solution to offset these emissions, consisting of post-mine reclamation involving reconstruction of soils using mine tailings and other residues such as domestic and industrial waste. These anthropic soils, known as technosols, could potentially offset up to 60% (1.00 Gt CO2eq) of soil-related CO2 emissions.

Continue reading.

#brazil #politics #science #environmentalism #climate change #ecology #brazilian politics #mining #mod nise da silveira #image description in alt

[urban-homesteading]

Can ANYTHING be done with my dog's poop? Is it compostable or is that only for farm animals?

It can totally be composted, but because dog poop is carnivore poop, once it’s composted, you shouldn’t use the resulting soil for any plants that will be eaten.  Carnivore feces contains bacteria and parasites that is more likely to be zoonotic, as well as require higher temperature to kill said bacteria.  So definitely safe to use on flowers, only safe in theory for vegetables.

You will also need two bins, one to contain the composting materials and one to actively compost in.  They do make divided spinning composters, which is what I use for my vegetable soil, so that’s always an option especially if you have more than one dog or a large dog. You will also need a shovel to turn the compost, a long-stemmed thermometer, and a water supply.  Water from a garden hose is okay, however, you may want to let the water sit in the sun to get warm before adding it to compost. Cold water will lower the temperature of the compost and we want it to stay warm.

Drill holes in the side of your trash bin that will hold the compost. Put the bin in a sunny, dry area.  Heat speeds up the bacteria, cold slows them to a crawl.

As you add dog poop to the bin, cover it with a shovel full of carbon materials. For every two poops, add at least one shovel full of sawdust, dried leaves, or chopped up wood and twigs. Mix thoroughly after every time you add.  If you accidently added too much sawdust, balance it out by adding green material such as fallen leaves or cut grass.

If you want, every few days you can add a shovel full of old compost on to the pile to speed up digestion.  This introduces established bacteria that will compost the dog poop faster.  If you are just beginning, then you can use soil from your garden or the ground.

Make sure to keep the pile moist! You should add water in small amounts so the compost has the texture of a wet sponge.

When your bin is full you should cover it so the microbes can get to work and start filling your next bin.

Now you can start taking the temperature of the compost. When the temperature starts to decline, usually after about two weeks, you should turn the pile.

Allow your finished compost for several months before using it.

The reason why we put the poop in a container to compost instead of just digging a hole is because we’re avoiding water contamination.

#compost #composting #dog poop #tw feces