Amazonian soils are almost universally thought of as extremely forbidding. However, it is now clear that complex societies with large, sedentary populations were present for over a millenium before European contact. Associated with these are tracts of anomalously fertile, dark soils termed terra preta. These soils are presently an important agricultural resource within Amazonia. They provide a model for developing long-term future sustainability of food production simple carbon based soil technologies in tropical environments, particularly among small holders

FALCÃO, N. P. S.

REBELLATO, L.

TEIXEIRA, W. G.

WOODS, W.

English

Repository Open Access to Scientific Information from Embrapa

e,Terra preta nova.2009 SP - S8639Embrapa Amazônia OCidentalSIN - BIBLIOTECAGLOBAL CHALLENGE, LOCAL ACTION:Ethical Engagement, Partnerships, and PracticeThe Society for Applied Anthropology69th Annual MeetingMarch 17 - 21, 2009Santa Fe Convention CentercoCf)CJ)Wco1~~~~~~~~~ml~OO~~~I~~~~~~~~~~~~22137 -1GENERAL INFORMATION*How to Use This ProgramSessions are identified with an alphanumeric code that indicatesthe session number and day of the week, For example, W-80 rep-resents session 80 on Wednesday, and T-15 represents session 15on Tuesday, Abstracts are in alphabetical order by presenter orsession organizer. At the end of each abstract is the alphanumericcode that refers to the session location in the prograrn schedule.The Participant Index lists the page number where each partici-pant may be found in the program schedule.*A 'Note About AbstractsIndividuais were given a choice to include their e-rnail addressesin the programo Those who selected the option to have their e-mail address printed are listed at the end of the abstract. Thosewho declined the opportunity to print their e-mail address are notprinted. For those registrants who did not indicate their prefer-ence, their e-mail addresses were not printed.*"RegistrationRegistration is required for attendance at ali sessions, as well asthe sponsored sociais and special events, Registration will startMonday, March 16 at the LaFonda Hotel beginning at 1:00 PM.Registration for the remainder of the week will be held at theSanta Fe Convention at the times indicated below:Monday, March 16 (LaFonda Hotel)Tuesday, March 17Wednesday, March 18Thursday, March 19Friday, March 20Saturday, March 211:00 PM-7:30 PM7:30AM-7:30 PM7:30 AM-7:30 PM7:30AM-7:30 PM7:30 AM-4:00 PM7:30 AM-12:00 PM*Messages and InformationA "Messages and Tnformation" bulletin board will be near theRegistration Desk. Please post your messages here for otherparticipants and locate other people registered for the meetings,Program changes will also be posted on this bulletin board, aswell as any Topical Interest Group announcements,*"Book ExhibitThe Book Exhibit will be held in Sweeney F of the Santa FeConvention Center. It will be open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.on Thursday and Friday. It will be open at 9:00 a.m. on Saturdayand close at 12:00 noon. The book auction (to benefit StudentCommittee activities) will be held on Saturday at 12:30 p.m.in Sweeney F."*Plenary SessionsThere will be three plenary sessions during the Santa Fe rneet-ings. On Wednesday, March 18, beginning at 6:00 p.m. inSweeney D, there will be a plenary on "History of Minori-ties in New Mexico, The featured plenary speaker is NewMexico State Historian Estévan Rael-Gálvez, The Presiden-tial Plenary "The Current World Food Crisis: Anthropologi-cal Perspectives" will be on Thursday, March 19, beginningat 8:00 a.m. in the Sweeney B. The plenary wil! be chairedby Lois Stanford (New Mexico State U). Presenters includeGlenn Stone (Washington U). Lois Stanford, Tim Finan (UArizona), Solomon Katz (U Pennsylvania), Ellen Messer(Tufts U), Barrett Brenton (St. John 's U). John Mazzeo (DePaul U), Thoric Cederstrom (lnternational Relief & Develop-ment), and Miriam S. Chaiken (New Mexico State U). At 5:30Thursday, March 19. in Sweeney D, the School for AdvancedResearch will sponsor a plenary on "Scholars, Security andCitizenship" chaired by Laura McNamara (Sandia NationalLaboratories). The plenary speakers are Maren Tomforde(German Armed Forces & Command College-Hamburg),Eyal Ben-Ari, (Hebrew University), Clementine Fujimura(U.S. Naval Academy), David Price (St. Martin's University).Douglas P. Fry (Ãbo Akad University, University Arizona),R. Brian Ferguson (University of Rutgers-Newark), RobertA.Rubinstein (Syracuse University), Anne Jrwin (University ofCalgary), Laura McNamara, and Danny Hoffman (Universityof Washington-Seattle),"*Social EventsThe fol!owing social events are planned for registered participantsat the 69th Annual Meeting:Wednesday, March 18, 5:30-6:30 p.m., Wine and CheeseReception (Coronado). Sponsored by the School forAdvanced Research and Left Coast Press.TERRA PRETA NOVAWOODS, William I. and REBELLATO, Lilian (U Kansas), TEIXElRA, Wenceslau G.(Embrapa Amazônia Ocidental), and FALCÃO, Newton P. S. (INPAlCPCAlSolos eNutrição de Plantas).Paper presented at The Society for Applied Anthropology 69th Annual Meeting, 21March 2009, Santa Fe, NM.ABSTRACT. Amazonian soils are almost universally thought of as extremelyforbidding. However, it is now clear that complex societies with large, sedentarypopulations were present for over a millennium before European contact. Associated withthese are tracts of anomalously fertile, dark soils termed terra preta. These soils arepresent1yan important agricultural resource within Amazonia. They provide a model fordeveloping long-term future sustainability of food production simple carbon based soiltechnologies in tropical environments, particularly among small holders.1- Terra Preta Nova.2 - As a result ofhuman occupation, enormous areas ofthe planet have been modified bya variety of mechanisms leading to the redistribution and alteration of earthen and othersurficial materiaIs.3 - Numerous physical and chemical changes in sediments and soils can resuIt at loci ofhuman occupation. Most importantly, where people live they concentrate nutrientsthrough the deposition of a variety of organic and inorganic debris from materiaIs derivedfrom a hinterland of exploitation.4 - Major contributions stem from animal and plant products brought to the place ofhabitation for direct consumption by humans 01' indirect consumption through domesticanimaIs, or for construction materiaIs and fuel.5 - In general, when compared to the relevant natural background soils, soils at humanhabitation sites exhibit anomalously darker coloration, higher pH levels, and increasedconcentrations of many plant nutrients, which can become extraordinary if the priorsettlement was intense or of long duration. In addition to a suite of macro- andmicronutrients, human intervention often enhances other soil properties beneficial toplants, e.g., cation exchange capacity, percent base saturation, moisture retention,conditions of structure, and soil biotic activity.6 - Within a settlement system proper manipulation of these nutrient streams and theirassociated transformations, translocations, additions, and losses is a critical variable forlong-term success and sustainability.7 - In Amazonia at least by the advent of the Christian era, successful articulatio?s withand modifications of the environrnent including true sedentism were present in manysettings. The descendents of these cultures formed the complex societies glimpsed sobriefly at European contact. Amazonian soils are almost universally thought of asextremely forbidding and with justification one would immediately question the viabilityof any large agricultural populations within this region. However, Amazonian responsesto problems of food production utilized an array of adaptations consisting of a multitudeof varieties of cultigens and semi-domesticates, agroforestry, focused manipulation oflocal ecologies, and large scale modification of soil conditions. Often, associated withthe sites of habitation of these prehistoric agriculturalists are tracts of anomalously fertile,dark soils termed terra preta. Heightened biotic activity and nutrient retaining capacitybrought about by deposition of charcoal, ash, and organic material appear to beprincipally responsible for these soils' remarkable fertility and persistence long after theircultural manipulation has ceased. These soils are presently an important agriculturalresource and provide a model for developing long-term future sustainability of foodproduction in tropical environments.8 - To understand how these soils developed we need to examine the ethnohistorical andarchaeological record on subsistence practices and refuse disposal pattems and considertheir effects on the relevant nutrient streams. In order for terra preta to develop at somepoint a threshold must be crossed where net accretion within a habitation zone overcomeslosses from erosion, leaching, and volatilization. Within the lowland portion of theAmazon Basin surpassing this threshold at least two millennia ago led to the widespreadformation ofthese soils.9 - The best archaeological documentation of this process comes from the Hatahara sitein the central Amazon. The site occupies a bluff top location overlooking the RioSolimoes and appears to have been first occupied several hundred years before thepresent era. Its occupants procured fish, turtles, and aquatic mammals from the turbidSolimoes, harvested crops grown on the rich soils of its floodplain, and hunted andgathered products from the surrounding forest, and through alI of these activitiesconcentrated nutrients within the occupied area of the site.10 - Within a few hundred years of the initial occupation the threshold of net accretionwas reached and from then on the rate of accretion accelerated through time. Theresultant 20 ha of rich anthrosols were such a valuable resource that they were foughtover. It is clear that another cultural group, the Tupi, took over the site during the latepreEuropean period and modified the former circular settlement plan to a linear one fromwhich the terra preta of Hatahara could have been more readily cropped.11 - Sometime during the sequence and we do not know when yet, rather than just usingthe results of centuries of wastes, the idea of intentionally changing soil characteristicstoward greater fertility was adopted. Through the addition of charcoal and ash andincluded nutrients the lands around the core zone of the settlement became improved,resulting in increase productivity for the community. The primary mechanism for thiswas presumably the application of low temperature combustion of moist floral materiaIs.Such a slash and char, rather than slash and burn, practice greatly increases theproduction of charcoal and decreases the loss of carbon and other volatiles that increasesoi! fertility. The resultant soils have been termed terra mulata.12 - While the classic terra preta are formed merely as a byproduct of refuse disposalactivities, terra mulata is a clear case of "landesque capital." Brookfield (1984) saw thisas a type of innovation that "once created persists with the need only of maintenance."Such improvements increase productivity per unit of land, but may not provideimmediate returns on an investment, so a long-term approach to land management isessential. Not explicitly stated, but implicit is intentionality. It takes both anunderstanding of soil processes and conscious investment in the land to produce soilimprovements that qualify as landesque capital and once such investments begin theyconstitute a profound change in both land management and how land is viewed. And, ifthe process is continued there is a cumulative affect through time.13 - Terras mulatas have been identified in numerous places in the Amazon since theirfirst recognition on the Belterra Plateau overlooking the Rio Tapajós to the south of thepresent city of Santarém. Here, huge of expanses of these improved soils are found to theinland of linear terra preta sites that extend for kilometers along the bluff edge and inarea are an order of magnitude larger.So, at the time of European contact there were extensive areas of fertile anthropogenicsoils throughout lowland Amazonia. The productive capacity of these dark earths washuge and although the extent to which they were utilized is unknown, the evidence forlarge nucleated populations suggests that much ofthis capacity was used.14 - During the historic period and continuing into the present, such abandonedhabitation sites and associated fields with dark earths have been sought out for root stock,cuttings, and medicinais from the ruderal plants. They are routinely selected bysmallholders for the establishment of pioneer colonies on the expanding agriculturalfrontiers. Nearer to urban areas they are put into intensive production of papaya,pineapple, and other high value crops including, amazingly, sod. Near Santarem, Manaus,and other cities they are mined for use in decorative public and private plant displays,family gardens, and even commercial truck gardens.15 - Even though these soils are estimated to comprise at least 0.2% or 1,260,000hectares of Greater Amazonia, even with this enormous area, they are not aninexhaustible resource. In spite of reports of cropping without fertilization for decades,the dark earths once exposed are subject to erosion and when cropped they have anutrient loss with each harvest. In addition, these soils, no matter how valuable for cropproduction, form a most significant part of the cultural patrimony of the region; they arearchaeological sites and hold irreplaceable information on the lost cultures of theAmazon. Consequently, they should be protected and studied, rather than exploited.16 - The fact remains though that more intensive, less destructive methods of foodproduction utilizing landesque capital need to be established in Amazonia, i.e., theancient technologies that resulted in the dark earths need to be replicated. Amultidisciplinary, international collection of researchers have been working since 2001toward the goal of generating new dark earths, Terra Preta Nova. Based primarily inBrazil and associated with Embrapa, INPA, the Museu Goeldi, and the universities of SãoPaulo, Pará, and Amazonas members of this group have been conducting archaeologicaland ethnographic field investigations, chemical and physical compositional studies ofancient dark earths, and replicative studies through field trials ofvarious forrns of organicsoil enhancement and crop response. Time does not permit great detail on any of theseinvestigations or on the numerous ethnographic and agronomic observations that havebeen coming in from investigators in the Tapajós, Trombetas, Negro, Xingu, Solimoes,and Madeira regions. However, some observations can be made.In general, to be successful the treatments need to:(1) increase pH and thus eliminate or at least decrease toxic AI ion activity andmake essential nutrients more available for plant growth;(2) increase cation exchange capacity and thus both nutrient & water retention;and,(3) increase the percent base saturation and nutrient status ofthe soil.Already, it has been demonstrated that applications of organic fertilizers and charcoalincrease nutrient stocks in the rooting zone of a variety of crops, reduce nutrient leaching,and improve production on highly weathered and acidic soils for a wide variety ofutilized plants. Soil organic matter and nutrients remained resilient through severalcropping cycles, suggesting that inputs can decrease through time with similar or greateryields. The process is a cumulative one and with the development of organo-mineralcomplexes and associated soil microbiota a synergy can develop whereby the process ofsoil enhancement to a large extent fuels itself.17 - Numerous articles and three volumes pertaining to this work have been publishedsince 2003 and another volume in Portuguese will be coming out this summer. Please feelfree to contact me for the references to any or ali of these publications.18 - With such c1early positive initial results and an expected elaboration on the specificsof the process, what are the problems for implementation? First of ali, with thepreEuropean terra preta this process initially happened as an unintended outcome ofnucleation, so any associated effort was not recognized; it took centuries for theunderstanding of the correlation between specific inputs and soil enhancement to developand be adopted as a common agricultural practice. Now, time is short and the necessaryinputs will immediately be recognized. It will take a lot of work and the payback will notalways be immediate or continuous. Most plants will respond well to the treatment andthis includes the aggressive colonizers; weeds can become a major problem that requiresadditional labor. In order for this to work a long-term commitment or land ethic needs tobe accepted by the small-holders involved. This will require among other things, c1eartitle to land and incentives to start and continue the process through the initial period.Enormous amounts of carbon are sequestered for millennia in the char and replacingslash and bum with slash and char would also greatly diminish carbon emissions. Amechanism through which carbon credits could be transferred to groups of small-holderswould be a valued stimulus.19 - Thank you.

Terra preta nova.

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Terra preta nova.

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